Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

 This recipe requires some prep work, but it makes a ton of food and the leftovers are amazing!

Freeze leftovers in individual containers for quick and easy weeknight dinners.

 

Ingredients

1 eggplant

1 batch of marinara sauce

 2 cups breadcrumbs

2 cups water

1 cup Parmesan cheese

8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup fresh basil

3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices.  I like to leave the skins on as they are packed with nutrients.  If you find the skins to be bitter, you may prefer to peel your eggplant before slicing.  Fill one bowl with water and another with breadcrumbs.  You can use store bought breadcrumbs, but I like to use homemade.  Just place the ends of a loaf of bread (the slices that no one wants for their sandwich) into a blender with some salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley and set the blender to crumb.  It's just that easy!  Add 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese to the breadcrumbs.  Take your eggplant and dip it into the water and then into the parmesan breadcrumbs, making sure that each slice is totally covered in crumbs.  Place the covered eggplant slices onto a cookie sheet that has been coated with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  You will need two cookie sheets to hold all of the eggplant slices.  Place the eggplant slices into a oven that has been preheated to 400 degrees.  Cook for 15 minutes on each side.

Now that the eggplant is cooked, we can begin to assemble our dish.  Take a 9 x 13 baking dish, drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom and coat the bottom with marinara sauce.  Place the eggplant into the dish, followed by a layer of marinara sauce (completely covering the eggplant), and a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese.  Repeat.

 

 Cover the baking dish with foil and place it into the oven that is still at 400 degrees.  Cook for 40 minutes or until the sauce starts to bubble at the sides of the dish.  Remove the foil, top with slices of fresh mozzarella and place the dish back into the oven.  Cook for an additional 10 minutes.  Top the eggplant parmesan with fresh basil and the remainder of your parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!