eggplant parmesan

One of Sarah's sisters had asked me for a recipe for something to do with eggplant. And I was thinking that, since eggplants aren't really in season, it would take me a while to get to posting a recipe. But, the last time I was at the grocery store, they had a ton of eggplants. And they looked really good. And they were really cheap. So I bought two. Then, I had to figure out what to do with them that didn't involve frying, deep or otherwise. Here is one of two dishes that I came up with.

Eggplant Parmesan:

1. eggplant: I started out with this recipe for eggplant parmesan, which I got from eggplantrecipes.net. Believe it or not, that is a real website. This recipe calls for 3-4 eggplants sliced into 1" pieces. But it also tells you that you are going to use a 9x13 baking dish. I wanted all my eggplant to be in a single layer in the dish, so I sliced 2 eggplants.
2. dredge: I then set up my dredging station. This works easiest if you have a lot of counter space and several pie pans. I have neither multiple pie pans nor counter space. I had one pie pan with flour (next to the coffee pot), a small casserole dish with one beaten egg and some water (on top of the dish drying rack), and then another small casserole dish with italian bread crumbs (on top of the stove). To dredge, I put the eggplant slices in the flour to coat, in the egg to coat, and then into the breadcrumbs. 
3. arrange: once dredged, I set them on a 9x13 casserole dish sprayed with Pam. It turns out that 2 eggplants will make more than enough to fit in a single layer in a 9x13 casserole. I put the remaining eggplant on a baking sheet.
4. bake: 30 minutes at 350.
5. sauce: after 30 minutes, it says to take the eggplant out and cover with 32 ounces of sauce. I thought that this was weird, as I spent a lot of time dredging the eggplant. So, on the eggplant in the 9x13, I covered in sauce. I used the whole jar. The other eggplant on the baking sheet, I left dry.
6. 2 c shredded cheese: I topped the 9x13 casserole eggplant with cheese. the baking sheet eggplant, I left dry.
7. bake some more. 10-15 minutes.
8. serve with pasta (whole wheat, upon Sarah's insistence).

This recipe turned out quite magnificent. Tasting it made me realize that I don't think I've ever had a well-prepared eggplant parmesan. Thinking about it, I realized that the only eggplant parmesan dishes I'd ever had were sandwiches at restaurants/pizza places of the ilk that end up on shows like kitchen nightmares.

Eating my eggplant parmesan was like eating a veggie lasagna (which is my favorite kind of lasagna). It was cheesy and savory and (despite being covered in tomato sauce) crunchy from the breading. I served two slices with each serving, mostly because I thought that putting more on the plate might look too crowded. I figured I would go back for seconds, but two slices with some spaghetti was enough. The most amazing part about it was how savory it was. You wouldn't think that it wasn't any meat in it. It was so good, I forgot to take a picture of myself eating it.

After the meal, I had a whole other sheet tray of breaded eggplant parmesan slices left over. I think Sarah and I got three lunches' worth of eggplant parmesan, which were very tasty (try adding a touch of goat cheese on reheating). Plus, I re-purposed the rest for a second dinner.