Contest-Winning Eggplant Parmesan
Because my recipe calls for baking the eggplant instead of frying it, unlike most eggplant Parmesan recipes, it’s much healthier! It takes a little extra time, but the Italian flavors and rustic elegance are well worth it. —Laci Hooten, McKinney, Texas
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 2-1/2 cups panko (Japanese) bread crumbs
- 3 medium eggplants, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 2 jars (4-1/2 ounces each) sliced mushrooms, drained
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 jar (28 ounces) spaghetti sauce
Reviews
I have never been so disappointed in a recipe that I have felt to comment, but here I am now. First, panko is too heavy for this or any eggplant recipe. Next, it was as dry as dirt and way undercooked at 30 minutes. Also, please don't use medium as a descriptor for ingredients. List the weight. Looking for a way to save this 2 hour effort. Drench it in another jar of sauce and cook another 30 minutes?
Some of the proportions on this are just wrong. It took me 5 eggs and 2 jars of sauce, for one. And pretty much 2/3 of a container of seasoned panko. Prep time is far longer than 40 minutes-- the baking time for the slices was alone well over an hour. Basically, you are not saving any time by baking the slices, and they do not turn out as beautiful as if you pan-fried them in olive oil. I suppose it is healthier, although olive oil is pretty good for you. Anyway, that said, it went together pretty well, and tasted good. I ended up using my used panko crumbs from the breading on top of the casserole.
This recipe sounds lovely but I was wondering weather I could use something else to replace the mushrooms?
This is so delicious! We love the healthy aspect of not frying as well. I used fresh mushrooms this last time since I had a bunch that needed to be used. I sautéed them in a non stick skillet to soften, then added the herbs. I split this into two 8 x 8 pans so I can freeze one. With that I use a little more sauce on the bottom. I also used one large eggplant instead of three medium and it filled the pans.
I like this much better than frying the eggplant. My husband and I love Eggplant Parmesan but try to avoid fried foods, so this is perfect for u.
Followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious, I'll definitely make this again. However, I gave this four stars because I think it requires just a few small tweaks - The recipe didn't call for quite enough sauce; next time I'll use about a cup more than it calls for. I also recommend salting the beaten eggs to add a little more flavor to the eggplant slices. I would also go a little hotter with the oven, about 375 should do it. Finally, I also recommend sprinking a little extra parmesan cheese on top before putting this in the oven. Otherwise, it is a great recipe. Thank you so much!
A quick, 'short-cut' version that's very good! I also flour my eggplant slices before the egg wash. Then broil the breaded slices on each side for 2 min before assembling. As for salting, soaking, I personally don't (my Italian family will cringe at that :D) if you don't want bitter, make sure you're buying fresh and don't select (overgrown-large.) The striped eggplant is the least bitter.
Loved baking instead of frying slices. Very good
I made this dish last night. The 45 min prep time was way underestimated. It took me over 2 hours prep time. I followed the recipe exactly and I agree with some of the comments below. There was not enough sauce so I had to open a second jar and still there was not enough sauce. I should have used 2 full jars. There was too little mozzarella cheese. Next time I would use twice the amount. After I sliced up my second eggplant I realized I was going to have more slices than would fit the dish. It took 3 large cookie sheets to bake each batch for 20 mins. That's an hour of prep time right there. After baking, the slices remained the color of the Panko and never did turn crispy or brown. Next time I would up the oven temp to 400. Come to think of it, next time I will fry the eggplant and skip the hour of baking. I had to use 4 xl eggs instead of 3. Using Panko bread crumbs were fine but I needed double the amount. Once the bread crumbs on the bottom of the plate got wet with eggs it had to be thrown out and started over with a fresh batch of bread crumbs. I agree with another review that I would not call this an award winning dish. I was very satisfied with the taste but it was not worth the 3 hours it took to make.
Husband loved this. I used more bread crumbs than called for....and I peeled the eggplant, salted the slices, and soaked them in water while I assembled the other ingredients...