Sick days are the best days. Sleeping in, reading, cooking the most decadent meals of life! I really look forward to the days of mild illness – too sick to work, but just enough strength to make a casserole!
I began my day by sleeping until 8 a.m. – 2.5 hours longer than usual. Then, I read about 100 pages of my current book (Silver Linings Playbook – much different than the movie, I swear) over about 3 cups of coffee. The most blissful of days.
I couldn’t waste a free evening on takeout so I knew I had to cook. With no time restraint, I went all out. My eggplant parm is not quick, but dagnabit is it worth it.
This is my favorite thing to order in any Italian-American restaurant. I’d never made it myself, but I’d recently seen about 8,300 different recipes for it so I combined about 6 and got the most scrumptious dinner of life.
Let me toot my own horn briefly and say that it tasted like restaurant quality – THERE I SAID IT.
BRB gotta have another helping.
Time: 2 hours (prep + cooking)
Serves: 2 hungry humans (in my case) or 4 normal ones
Ingredients:
- 2 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
- 3/4 cup of italian breadcrumbs
- 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp. water
- 1 jar of tomato sauce
- 2 cups mozzarella, shredded
- 2 tbsp. of olive oil
- S+P, to taste
- Fresh basil, for serving
How to:
- Salt each side of the eggplant rounds and place into colander, letting drain for 30 minutes
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- While draining, line two baking sheets with foil and drizzle with 1 tbsp. of olive oil each
- Whisks eggs + water into a bowl
- Combine breadcrumbs + parmesan + oregano + basil + S+P in another bowl
- Dredge each round in egg and breadcrumb mixture and place onto baking sheet, repeat until sheets are full
- Bake rounds for 20 minutes
- Flip rounds and bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown
- Remove sheets and turn heat up to 400 degrees
- Line a baking dish with 2 cups of tomato sauce
- Place 6-8 rounds on bottom and add a cup of mozzarella + more tomato sauce
- Place the rest of the rounds on the top with the remaining mozzarella + tomato sauce
- Sprinkle top with a tbsp. of extra breadcrumbs + two tbsp. of parmesan, bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbling
- Remove and sprinkle with fresh basil
- BON APPETIT!
Loosely adapted from:
This looks so yummy. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
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Absolutely glorious post! I’ve been using eggplant loads recently on my blog, but hadn’t thought about this fantastic concoction. Adore your photos too! 🙂
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You’re too kind! Thank you for reading. I look forward to reading about some of your kitchen adventures as well! 🙂
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Beautifully done. Eggplant parm is so labor intensive!
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My favorite dish of all time. You’re looks incredible!
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It’s mine, too! This is a pretty fool proof recipe – hope you give it a try!
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yammy!
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Hi Rachel, thank you for the like. I found this recipe on your blog. One of my faves and havent made it in ages. Thanks for the inspiration!
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I’m trying this today. I thought this required frying in order to be delicious and have always been too lazy to attempt that. This looks SO GOOD.
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SO GOOD. My whole family loved your eggplant parmesan! I will make it again and again and feel grateful and happy. Thanks.
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