Crunchy breaded eggplant parmesan
Hello friends! how have you been?? Good I hope! Can you believe St. Valentine’s is here!! It has been a busy but a good week.
Next week my husband and I are celebrating our 15-year wedding anniversary, and we are celebrating with a romantic trip to the big apple, just the two of us!! So, exited.
I was trying to make a quick and kind of healthy recipe and put together today’s recipe, and it was good; really good. crispy breaded eggplant, dipped in fresh tomatoes sauce with lots of melted cheese. I’m in!
The fresh herbs I used work beautifully with this sauce. So, try to get your hands on some fresh herbs, if you aren’t able, you can use dry herbs in a smaller amount.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 eggplants peeled and sliced crosswise 1/4-inch thick
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 eggs beaten
- 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons dried garlic parsley
- 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 Spanish onion 1/4-inch dice
- 4 garlic cloves peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
- 2 28-ounce cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
- Salt
Instructions
- For the tomato sauce
- In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve. This sauce holds 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 6 months in the freezer.
- Yield: 4 cups
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray an 11x13-inch baking dish and 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.
- Place eggplant slices on racks over the sink or paper towels and sprinkle both sides of slices lightly with salt. Let eggplant drain for 30 minutes, rinse, and pat dry with paper towels.
- Pour beaten eggs into a bowl; combine panko bread crumbs with dry parsley and garlic in another bowl. Dip eggplant into beaten egg and press into panko crumbs to coat.
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a thick bottom pan and place breaded eggplant, in small batches. Let them cook about 8 minutes on each side or until golden and crunchy.
- Spread 1/3 of the tomatoes sauce into bottom of the prepared baking dish. Top with half the eggplant slices, half the Italian cheese blend, and half the Parmesan cheese. Spread another 1/3 of the sauce over the layers; layer the remaining eggplant, remaining pasta sauce, Italian cheese blend, and Parmesan cheese.
- Bake casserole in the 350-degree oven until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20 minutes.
I wish all of you a great weekend and of course lots and lots of sweet and savory things for St. Valentine’s.
16 thoughts on “Crunchy breaded eggplant parmesan”
Happy Valentine’s day and happy 15 year anniversary to you and the Hubby!! I love eggplant parmesan and will have to try your recipe next time I make it. Hope you and the family are having a wonderful weekend 🙂
Thank you Karrie!! I hope you had a happy Valentine’s too!
Happy Anniversary to you guys and how exciting to go to the big apple! Hope you had a fabulous time! Eggplant parm is delicious and this looks so good! I love good comfort food like that and I’m sure this hits the spot 🙂
Oh Dawn, thanks!! We did! it was a marvelous week full of amazing activities!
Hey Gaila – I’m thinking about you at the Big Apple this week. Or maybe you are back already. Sounds like a wonderful trip, congrats on #15. My husband and I celebrate #24 this summer, but he will unfortunately be out of the country on our anniversary — we’ll have to celebrate it when he gets back. So I hope you are having a good time and enjoying all the sights and time together. Your eggplant recipe looks delicious. My mom made us an Eggplant Parmesan dish growing up and yours reminds me of that one that we loved. Have a great week! XOXO
I am unfortunately back, but thrilled of my NYC week, I loved every minute of it! this dish is simple yet so flavorful, thanks for stopping by my dear and hope you get a big celebration on those 24!
Looks delicious Gaila! Eggplant parm is one of my favorite dinners!
Thank you Mary Ann
Gosh! I’m embarrassed to say that I’m just now catching up on my friend’s blog posts…and by now, your NYC trip is probably over. Hopefully you had the trip of a lifetime, Gaila! I love going down to NYC! Hopefully you guys had some good food there, too! 🙂 Speaking of food…you know what’s funny? I’ve actually been craving eggplant parm lately. Like a lot! And then you post this wonderful recipe? Perfect timing! This one needs to happen in my kitchen…and soon! Thanks for sharing…and happy belated Valentine’s Day/wedding anniversary! Here’s to 15 more!
Hello David and thank you so much!! we had a wonderful time in NYC and the food was amazing!! thanks again
Oh my goodness! Happy 15 years and hope you had a blast in NYC! Your eggplant parm sounds like something that needs to go on my list of things to try!
Hey Rachelle!! We did had a blast in NYC, oh my so much stuff to do and try!! food was fantastic!! thanks my dear!
Hope you had a WONDERFUL Valentine’s day and so much fun in NYC! 15 years is a long time, so congrats!! I love eggplant parmesan, it’s actually one of the only things I let my husband make because it’s his ‘specialty”. lol. I’ll have to send this recipe over to him. 🙂 Cheers, girl!
Girl! It was a wonderful week!! thank you darling!
This is an excellent tasty recipe! The way to keep the crunch is to put the prepared eggplant on a baking sheet and just top each slice with a little sauce and the cheese.
Thank you Alma fpr stopping by