Baked Eggplant Parmesan

I think this might be my first, true, meatless Monday post, and it’s a good one.

For the longest time, I thought eggplant parm was gross. I have no idea where this came from, as I’m not a picky eater, but I feel like eggplant parm is at the bottom of my list when I go out. When I was a kid, like 10 years old, my grandma would take my sister and me (sometimes just one of us at a time because we could be a handful) for a few days, a week, I’m not really sure – time to a 10-year-old is irrelevant. When we were there, we’d go on grand adventures, and one of those took us to Galena, Illinois. Which to a normal person wouldn’t seem so great, but to me, it was MAGICAL. As I looked it up, it is also has a home that was gifted to Ulysses S Grant (I’ve never been) which is telling you something if that’s its great claim to fame. But anyway, we went to this restaurant called Fried Green Tomatoes and I’m certain we got fried green tomatoes, which are similar to eggplants in how they’re fried. I put my leftovers in the garage fridge, forgot about them, and then went back to my parent’s house. Well, several weeks (again time is a black hole and I don’t know how much time actually passed) later we went back to my grandma’s and as I often did I would clean out the fridge because her mobility wasn’t great and what did I find? My fried green tomatoes leftovers. They no longer looked like fried discs, but they were fully covered in a fuzzy mold so I slammed the lid shut and threw it away and I have had a weird dislike for things fried like that.

Until now, but I guess this isn’t really fried. But you’ll get it. This is inspired by Alison Roman’s eggplant parmesan but scaled down for two servings and a bit lighter. I posted this on my IG stories but wanted to make it a legitimate post. So please enjoy.

Eggplant Parm
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 eggplant, sliced 1/2” to 3/4” thick
Salt and pepper

Sauce
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 tbsp anchovy paste or 2 anchovy filets
1/4 yellow onion, diced
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
1/8 preserved lemon or 2 tbsp lemon juice
15 oz of salt free crushed tomatoes
1-2 tsp honey

Topping
1/2 cup panic bread crumbs
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 grated parmesan cheese

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and put a little drizzle of oil on the foil before putting on the eggplant rounds to prevent sticking. Place the eggplant rounds evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle the remaining oil over the top of all of the eggplant, season with salt and pepper, and bake for 15 minutes, flip the eggplant, and then bake for 15 more minutes or until the eggplant is nicely browned and fragrant.

While the eggplant is baking, heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add in the oil and onions, sautéing for 5 minutes or until they start to brown and become translucent. Then add in the garlic, anchovy paste and let cook for 30-60 seconds or until the garlic starts to smell toasted and the anchovy paste has almost melted away. Then add in your red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning blend, lemon, tomatoes, and honey. Stir together and let simmer for 10 minutes minimum, stirring occasionally, but I let it cook until my dish was ready to plate, about 20 minutes.

To make the topping, heat a skillet over medium heat and add in the oil and the panic breadcrumbs, toasting until just golden brown, should take about 5 minutes. If you do this beforehand and want to revive them before plating, just heat them over low or a few minutes in the same pan so they don’t burn.

To serve, add a little bit of sauce onto your plate, then top with 1/4 of the golden eggplant rounds, sprinkle with 1/4 parmesan, add more sauce, 1/4 of the eggplant, 1/4 parmesan, and then 1/2 of the toasted panko.

For leftovers, I would store each component separately and then reheat as individual items so nothing gets soggy.