The foundation for this meal came from this recipe at AllRecipes. We didn't have all of the specified ingredients, but thought we could experiment, so here's our modified version:
Ingredients
* 1 eggplant, peeled and sliced
* 2 eggs
* 1 tablespoon water
* 1 cup dry bread crumbs
* 2 tomatoes, chopped
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* 1 handful of fresh basil
* olive oil
* balsamic vinegar
* fresh mozzarella
* cooked pasta
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet or pizza pan with olive oil.
2. Slice the eggplant slices 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Trim the skin, maintaining the round shape of the slices. In a small bowl, whip together the egg and water. Place the breadcrumbs in a separate small bowl.
3. Dip the eggplant slices one at a time into the egg and water mixture, then into the breadcrumbs. One by one, place the coated slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet or pizza pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven approximately 15 minutes. Change oven setting to broil, and continue cooking 3 to 5 minutes. Check the slices frequently while broiling to avoid burning.
5. While eggplant is baking, cook pasta of your choice.
6. Combine tomato, onion, garlic, and basil in a bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar to taste (probably only a splash of each).
7. For serving, place two roasted eggplant slices over pasta. Top with tomato mixture and fresh mozzarella cheese.
Whenever I make eggplant parmesan, I use the same method of breading the sliced eggplant and then baking it in the oven. For the breading, I use a combination of bread crumbs and wheat germ. The wheat germ seems to make it lighter and to give it more texture. Also, for slicing eggplant and other vegetables, I have found that the use of a mandolin is very helpful.
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