My wife has a few standard meals that she uses to evaluate a restaurant. For Mexican restaurants, she always defers to cheese enchiladas. And when we go to a new Italian place, she always orders the Eggplant Parmesan.  Fair Enough – for me it’d be a good cheeseburger (with NO MAYO!).

We used to have this local restaurant called Randazzos.  It was run by a husband and wife team. He ran the front of the house after working all day at an aerospace company, she made the cheesecakes herself. The food was excellent, but they sold the business about 20 years ago.

Lizzy still talks about the eggplant parm.  So, when I saw Lydia make a roasted eggplant dish, I decided to try to make this one on my own.

But here’s the thing.  Eggplant gets very soggy very quickly.  And most of the dishes I’ve had have the breadcrumbs fried but, again, that soggy thing makes them a bit gummy. 

So, I changed it up a bit – I fry the eggplant and top the dish with the breadcrumbs.  The only thing I will say is that I would not prepare and re-heat this dish, as it would likely get soggy again.

This would serve about 2-3 people. You can always scale it up (remember – NEVER MEASURE).

Ingredients:

• 1 Eggplant, cut in thick (1/2 inch) disks)
• 2-3 tbsp. Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper (optional – some cayenne or similar)
• 2-5 tbsp. oil for frying.
• 1-2 cups LarryLand All-Purpose Marinara Sauce ( see LarryLand All-Purpose Marinara )
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• ½ cup toasted breadcrumbs (see embedded recipe)

Recipe:

First, a bit of planning.  If you want to do everything, here’s how I would proceed:

1. Start by making the marinara sauce.
2. Cut and salt the eggplant (see below)
3. While it’s reducing, make the breadcrumbs.
4. You can do these steps well in advance of cooking the eggplant.
5. Prep the eggplant (see below), but do not fry this until sauce is done and ready to bake.

So, get out your casserole pan, and ladle sauce in the bottom to cover. Don’t drench it in sauce here.

Prepping the eggplant.   Eggplant is full of water, and a lot of folks suggest salting the eggplant for about 30-45 minutes over paper towel to dry it out a bit.  This is optional, but I like it if the eggplant is not very fresh. Just remember to wipe the salt and water off the eggplant before you proceed.

On a plate, put the flour and season it as you like.  Put the eggplant into the flour and coat both sides lightly.

Preheat the oven to 375.

With a large non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Canola or veggie oil may work better than olive oil here.  You don’t want too much oil – the eggplant will suck it up.

Fry the slices until the flour has a nice brown color. The goal is to not have soggy slices (which sounds like some sort of medical condition).

Put them on top (not in) the marinara sauce. Then put the mozzarella cheese over the top, and the sprinkle on breadcrumbs.

Bake until the cheese is lightly brown and the breadcrumbs are not burned.

Breadcrumb Recipe:

• Take 1-2 slices of stale bread (I like French-style for this)
• Add about 1 tbsp. Olive Oil.
• Add about ¼ tbsp. dry herbs, to taste.
• Add about 1/8 cup of grated parmesan cheese, to taste.
• Add a dash of salt and pepper.
• Mix together. Bake for about 5 minutes at 350. A toaster oven works great here.