Eggplant Parmesan

My dad had a bunch of eggplants from his garden that needed to be eaten. I valiantly rose to the challenge. I was a vegetarian for three years. When I was, eggplant parmesan was my go to meal. To this day, it is still one of my favorites! After many attempts, I have finally perfected my recipe and I am now sharing with you! Let me know if you try it! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2-3 large eggplants
• Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Whole wheat flour
• Eggs
• water
• 2 28 oz cans tomato sauce
• Onions
• garlic
• Fresh basil
• Mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt

Directions:

• Cut the tops and bottoms off the eggplants and slice them long ways into thin strips.
• Top eggplant slices with salt and a paper napkin. Place a plate over the paper napkin. This will help draw the moister from the eggplant. You can do this a couple hours before or right before you make the dish. If you’re pressed for time, you can skip this step.
• Make the tomato sauce by sauteing ½ a chopped onion and a few chopped garlic gloves in olive oil. Once the onion and garlic are soft, add your tomato sauce, and fresh basil. Fill tomato can ¼ the way with water and add to sauce. Let the sauce simmer while you make your eggplant.
• Fry the eggplant. To fry the eggplant set up three bowls. Fill the first bowl with whole wheat flour. Fill the next bowl with 7 scrambled eggs and a tblsp of water, mix until combined. Fill the last bowl with equal parts bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, mix until combined. Depending on how much eggplant you have you may have to refill your bowls. The more you make this dish, the better you’ll be able to feel out how much of everything you will need.
• Coat each eggplant pieces in whole wheat flour. Then coat completely in egg and then coat completely in your bread crumb/parmesan mixture.
• Do this with all your eggplant slices.
• Fill a frying pan ¼ of the way with olive oil and heat.
• Place eggplant in pan to fry. Once bottom is golden brown ( about 5 mins ) flip them and cook the other side.
• If you need to fry multiple batches of eggplant, you may need to replace the oil in the pan. If the oil gets dark, replace it with new oil or use a new pan and new oil. The darker the oil is, the easier the eggplant will be to burn. Be extremely cautious when handling hot oil, it can easily pop out of the pan and burn you if it gets too hot.
• After frying, set the eggplant on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.
• To make your eggplant parmesan, line the bottom of a deep dish baking pan with tomato sauce.
• On top of the tomato sauce, line a layer of fried eggplant, then a layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of mozzarella cheese. Continue this until you get to the top of the baking pan. Once you get to the top layer, top with cheese and fresh basil
• Cook in a preheated 350 degrees fare height oven for 25 mins. Enjoy!