Original Eggplant Recipe with help from my friends

Jim went to Hobart for this past weekend for a cross country honors event. I decided that I wanted Eggplant Parmesan.  Jim claims to hate eggplant. So I pulled out all my Italian cookbooks and only found two, neither of which appealed to me. Then I looked In my Jane Grigson’s Vegetable book and this one sounded better. But then I thought of my friend Mary who follows my site, but writes her comments independently to me by email. She sent me her recipe all of which she keeps in her head, no measurements. By the time I had done all this and bought all the ingredients, plus went to a crafts show, I decided to wait for Jim’s return. The one thing that stuck out from Mary was that she said that when her vegetarian children are not around, she uses a meat sauce instead of Marinara. I thought this might make Jim happier. In the Grigson’s book she warned to use only Italian Mozzarella not the Danish imitation. So I bought Italian Mozzarella. I called another friend Joan to see if she wanted to go to a farmer’s market with me. I still had to get eggplant and I wanted good tomatoes, a Halloween pumpkin stand that I had seen the week before, etc. I was discussing my recipe research with Joan when she told me what she does to cut the oil. She bakes the eggplant with a spray of canola oil. I thought great, no fry mess to clean up and better for you. So what follows is an original recipe from Linda, Mary and Joan, with a little help from Jane Grigson’s cookbook.
Ingredients:
3# of eggplant sliced lengthwise in about ½” pieces. I did not peel per Mary’s suggestion, but if may have helped Jim not to ID the eggplant.
Kosher Salt
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs, fresh or Panko, about 2 cups
2 balls of Mozzarella Cheese
1 pt. Parmesan, less or more depending on taste
3-4 cups of Marinara or Bolognese Sauce, depending on Meat or meatless
½ large onion
IT Italian seasoning,
Canola oil, spray
EVOO
1. After slicing the eggplant, sprinkle and place in a colander to drain, 45 min. to an hour. Rinse the eggplant and dry with paper towels.
2. I used real bread that I put in the food processor with parmesan cheese and Penzeys Italian spice. I beat the two eggs with about 1T water like I was making an omelet. Then I lined two shallow baking pans with non-stick aluminum foil and sprayed with canola oil. . Heat the oven to 375. I used my convection setting for this step. I dipped in the egg and then in the breadcrumbs and placed in the pans. Then I lightly drizzled with EVOO. I baked on each side for 20 minutes each. They looked gorgeous. Reduce the heat to 350.
3. To make it more palatable for Jim I chose to go the Bolognese route. Earlier this year you can find the red sauce with basil that I made. I thawed it and cooked up lean ground beef and Italian sausage with ½ a large onion. After the meat was fully cooked, I drained all the grease out and added it back to the pan on low with my tomato sauce.
4. For the assembly I sliced the mozzarella with my cheese slicer to make it all even. Put some of the sauce in the bottom. Next a layer of eggplant followed by mozzarella and parmesan. I had 3 layers of eggplant. I ended with red sauce on top and sprinkled with the remaining parmesan.
5. Cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes. Uncover and let rest about 15 minutes.
The verdict
Jim said he liked it as he could not taste the eggplant and it wasn't tough. I think I would have preferred to have left out the meat as I couldn’t really taste the eggplant. Depending on your hungry boys, I’d say this easily serves 6-8. It is a long process and if you are making your meat sauce from scratch, you better start early.