Easy Eggplant Bake

Eggplant Parmesan involves breading the eggplant slices and frying them before baking them. To make it a bit quicker and healthier without losing a lot of the flavors for a weeknight meal, I decided to skip the breading and frying/pan-frying the eggplant, and go light on the cheese.

This can be a meal in itself, or can be served along with a starter salad to round out the meal. I used home-made marinara sauce that I had canned from last summer's yield of tomatoes from our garden.

Large globe or black beauty eggplants work well for this recipe, but any favorite variety can be used. I like to cut them into discs as it makes it easy to layer them and overlap them for baking, but again, long slices is an option.

It is no secret that I love eggplant as quite a few of the recipes collected here seem to feature it :)

Ingredients
1-2 globe eggplant, cut into ¼ inch thick discs
2-3 cups of marinara sauce or any other favorite tomato sauce
2-3 cups freshly grated part-skim mozzarella cheese
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thin
2-3 Tbsp olive oil, or any cooking spray
salt to taste
chopped fresh rosemary, oregano, spring onions for garnish

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 375°F;
2. Grease a roasting pan or casserole lightly with cooking spray (or brush with olive oil) and arrange a layer of eggplant slices at the bottom
3. Spread some sauce in a thin layer over the eggplant, sprinkle some some sliced garlic and some mozzarella
4. Add another layer of eggplant, sauce, garlic cheese and so on till all eggplant is used up, making sure to slightly overlap the eggplant in each layer, and top with some extra cheese if preferred
5. Bake in the 375°F oven for about 10-15 minutes, checking to make sure cheese doesn't burn; reduce the heat to 350°F and finish cooking till eggplant is done to your liking and the cheese is melted
6. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve warm