2 medium large eggplants
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup homemade bread crumbs – recipe to follow
2 cups tomato sauce – homemade or canned
1 pound fresh Mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Slice the eggplant horizontally into 1/3inch slices. Sprinkle
the eggplant with salt and pepper. Heat half of the olive oil in a
saute pan and lightly brown the eggplant on both sides.
Lightly coat a cookie sheet with olive oil, starting with the 4 largest pieces of eggplant place them on the cookie sheet. Add a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce followed by a slice of the fresh Mozzarella cheese, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and continue to layer the eggplant slices on top of each other repeating with the sauce and cheese on each layer from largest to smallest. The final layer should be covered with the remainder of the sauce and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
To plate it, make a small pile of bread crumbs and set one serving of
the eggplant parmesan on top. Tear some basil leaves and spread them
around the plate follow up with a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of
Parmesan cheese.
Repeat procedure for the rest of the eggplant.
Homemade Breadcrumbs
4 slices day old bread of your choice
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Slice the bread into very small cubes and spread them out on a cookie sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper. Bake until golden brown.
Serves 4
Note: Eggplants can be peeled, if desired
Substitute Daiya Vegan Cheese to make this a vegan recipe