A new twist on eggplant parmesan

Appropriately named black beauty eggplant.  Swoon.  

One of the hits of the garden this year is the eggplant.  It’s October and I’m still getting a few fruits a week.  Yep, eggplant is a fruit.  More specifically, a berry.  (I’m a veritable font of knowledge, I know.)  This eggplant explosion has left me reaching for new ways to eat it.  Eggplant is great in stir fries and even better roasted and blended into a dip to make baba ganoush, but nine times out of ten I make a riff of eggplant parmesan.  Last week I discovered a new favorite.

A couple weeks back, we hosted a birthday party for a special little miss and I cooked up a ton of eggplant for traditional eggplant parm.  I had extra eggplant, so I froze the pieces individually on a baking sheet then popped it in a ziplock once it was solid to be used on a night I wanted an easy dinner.  The other night, I found that dinner.

I layered sliced polenta rounds with the eggplant, covered it in mozzarella and sauce and baked it into deliciousness I didn’t think possible from the 10 minutes it took to put together.  This is a definite addition to my fall dinner lineup.  

You're only four ingredients away from a delicious dinner.

What I like about this recipe is it can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be.  You can go all in and make each ingredient yourself or you can get some help from the grocery store and it’s dinner with some assembly required.  

Either way you prepare it, it’s delicious comfort food perfect for these chilly fall nights!

Eggplant Parmesan and Polenta Bake

Ingredients

• Breaded Eggplant, homemade or store bought (see how-to below)
• 1 roll of prepared polenta, sliced thin
• 3 cups of tomato sauce (Regular sauce works great, but vodka sauce is even better!)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and get ready to assemble.

In an ovenproof baking dish, place a layer of polenta on the bottom.  Lay half the baked eggplant and top with half the sauce and half the cheese.  Repeat the process for the second layer.  

At this point you can stick it in the fridge to bake later or place it right into the oven.  Bake for about 15 minutes, until it’s hot throughout and the cheese almost starts to brown.  Serve immediately to good company.

Please note, if you’re using a glass dish and are planning to put this in the fridge to cook later, allow it to sit out for a half hour before placing it in the hot oven.  Not only could it break the dish and ruin dinner, but you’ll still be cleaning up the mess when the pizza gets delivered.  

Setting up the breading station.  Most of the breadcrumbs ended up in the bowl.

How to bread eggplant

Either you don’t know or you’re just curious how I make mine, here goes:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and thinly slice one eggplant.  The thinner the better.  Set aside.  

In separate bowls, set up 1 cup of flour,  2 beaten eggs and 1 cup of panko for coating the eggplant.  Season each with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.  (If you want to omit the garlic powder from this step, you can, just know we can’t be friends.)  

Coat each slice of eggplant with flour, shaking off the excess, dip it in the eggs and coat with the breadcrumbs.  You may end up needing more of these, it all depends on how much eggplant you’re making and how big they are and how thick you slice it.

Place onto foil lined baking sheet and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Bake for 20 minutes, until tender and lightly golden.  Times may vary depending on the thickness of the eggplant.  These won’t get as brown as their fried counterparts, but they will be just as delicious.