Eggplant Parmesan

There's nothing like a good sale to prompt attempting a new dish.  We saw eggplant on sale at Kroger at 10 for $10.  Thus we decided to try our hands at a classic, eggplant parmesan.

Fresh out of the oven.

We borrowed from this Food Network recipe - primarily the part where you salt the eggplant slices and let them hang out for an hour.  Instead of the quick marinara in the recipe, we made our own sauce.  We sauteed half an onion, half a yellow bell pepper, celery, and carrots, added it to a couple of cans of diced tomatoes, added some salt, pepper, and olive oil, and simmered it for maybe 20 or 30 minutes.  After that, we stuck the sauce in the blender to make it nice and smooth.  From there, we assembled the final product, layering the sauce with mozzarella, parmesan, and the eggplant slices (which we, of course, breaded and fried).

Gooey, cheesy, and delicious.  The way it should be.

When Ben has had eggplant parmesan in the past, it's frequently been kinda soggy and sad.  This one happily did not fit that description.  The cheese was nice and golden brown on the top, and the eggplant was fantastic.  This one is definitely making it into our dinner rotation - that is, whenever eggplant goes back on sale.

C & D