Eggplant Parmesan/Lasagna

It can be tough to find a great veggie recipe. Here is one that is fantastic! As well as being easy to make it tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

eggplant - cut in half and slice in sections about the same thickness as your pinky
breadcrumbs - plain or flavored ones by Progresso are good
eggbeaters
flour
Lasagna noodles - Barilla is good and  they spell it Lasagne (plural per wiki?)
cheese - Shredded Monterey Jack
pasta sauce - any, Ragú or Classico are fine
oil - any/vegetable

1. Slice up the eggplant (see pic), dredge in flour, dip/coat in eggbeaters/breadcrumbs and fry in pan with oil (a min or two then flip and finish for a min or two). You will know when it is done when it looks golden delicious. If you over fry it, you will also know as it will blacken (as in you burnt it). Once you take out the pieces you can let them cool for a few min and eat as is since it is great at this point. Try not to eat all of it before layering in to the Lasagna. mmmm....crispy delicious, yet soft in the middle.

*tip, oil is heated enough when it will fizzle pop if  anything drops into it. You'll know if it is set too high if the cooking is too violent...takes practice but is easy after a short period

2. Place Lasagna in large boiling pot of water per package instructions (see pic). Take out when it is still "'al dente"...a bit tough as it will cook a little more in the oven.

3. Start layering a glass Pyrex or ceramic baking dish. Spoon coat the pan with sauce first so that things don't stick later. Place pasta sheets down, more sauce, fried eggplant, and then cheese....any order really, then repeat....

*tip, Monterey Jack melts nice but you may use anything you want. I have tried many combinations including ricotta, marscapone, parmesan, pecorino, mozzarella, cottage cheese...and in the end a simple Monterey Jack works very well.

4. Place in oven, and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or so. Everything is already cooked so this is to heat everything thoroughly and to brown the chesse on top.

*tip, add sliced veggies in the layers to add variety. Red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash are all tasty.

*tip, add fresh chopped parsley to layers as well as crushed red pepper flake, black pepper, garlic, etc. freedom is wonderful and there is no real way to screw up. It tastes great every time!