Vegetarian night: Eggplant parmesan

Every now and then we have a vegetarian night. 

My favorite meal, one I often get at restaurants, is Eggplant Parmesan. It's not terribly hard to make. 

You start with an eggplant, usually one large or two small.

 This was a fun experience, shopping for the eggplant. You see, my Kroger here apparently is having trouble figuring out how much stock to have out. It's fairly new, less than a year, and I think more popular than suspected. So for example the entire strawberry section was just empty while produce workers were diligently dragging crates of produce out and dumping them in. Unfortunately its like ants at a picnic and people were swarming as they were dumping. 

Anyway, I ended up finding one of the three eggplants left in the building. 

Start by slicing the eggplant. Cut off the ends and a long slice of skin. Then salt and put in the colander until it sweats out the water.  Squeeze out the excess water.

Next beat a couple eggs and add some water in a medium bowl. This to dip the eggplant in. 

Dredge in italian bread crumbs. I use a plate for this because the pieces are big. 

After they are ready, cook them in a frying pan with olive oil. Keep in mind, eggplant soaks up a lot of oil, so you may need to keep adding some. 

Now you assemble it kind of like you do with lasagna; Pan, Sauce, eggplant, sauce, eggplant, sauce, cheese, eggplant, sauce, and cheese.

Bake until the cheese is bubbly and melted. 

Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Eggplant parmesan

2 small eggplant

Italian breadcrumbs

1 egg

Olive oil

Prego spaghetti sauce

Italian 5 cheese blend (shredded)

Cut the ends off each eggplant.

Cut the long way into ¼ inch strips, discarding the pieces that are mostly skin.

Set out a bowl with 1 egg plus some water and beat the egg

Set another bowl out with Italian breadcrumbs

Put olive oil into a frying pan and turn on the heat.

Dip the eggplant slices into the eggwash, then dredge in breadcrumbs

Fry in the olive oil 1-2 mins per side.

Meanwhile put some spaghetti sauce in an 9x13 pan

Once fried, place the eggplant slices in the pan until all the space is filled up.

Pour on more spaghetti sauce.

Repeat with more fried eggplant, sauce, and this time put some cheese down, covering the eggplant

Repeat with more fried eggplant, sauce and cheese.

Once all layers are done, ensure the last layer has sauce and cheese.

Bake at 350F for 25 mins or until cheese is bubbly and browning on th edges.

Let it cool 10 mins then cut with a serrated knife into 9 pieces.

Enjoy!