Eggplant Parmesan
Hear me out, don’t knock eggplant until you’ve tried it. Eggplant has a ton of health benefits, it’s packed with antioxidants which help protect your cells from damage, minerals, and is actually a fruit, surprise! I used to hate eggplant as a kiddo because, well it looks weird. But I made this eggplant parmesan recipe last week and I will absolutely be making it again!
Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
1 ½ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 eggs
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups marinara sauce (get a fancy kind, I find that it’s always worth it to splurge a little bit on a higher quality, the taste rating goes way up)
2 cups whole milk shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded parmesan
1 handful of chopped basil
Instructions:
1. Slice eggplant into 1-2 inch thick rounds. Lightly salt tops of rounds.
2. In two shallow dishes add breadcrumbs to one and whisk eggs and milk in the other. Dip bother sides of eggplant slices into the milk/egg mixture and then repeat in with the breadcrumbs.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. In a skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tbsp. of olive oil into the skillet. Once the skillet is hot, add two eggplant slices at a time to the skillet and cook on both sides until golden brown, remove and set aside.
In a large casserole dish, add 1 cup of marinara sauce to the bottom of the casserole dish. Add a layer of eggplant slices. Using a 1/4 cup, dollop marinara sauce on top of the eggplant slices. On top of the eggplant slices, sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers until you run out of eggplants slices. Top the casserole with more cheese because well, you have never have too much cheese.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and brown on top. I used the broiler for 5 minutes to get the cheese nice and brown – you don’t have to, but if you do, make sure to keep an eye on it!
Serve hot and top with chopped basil, if desired.