Just a straightforward, sweet and smoky rub I made once. Add a little more cayenne pepper if you prefer your food to have more bite. wonderful for grilling ribs that have been baked! Apply to your preferred ribs and savor them!
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- ½ cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 1 eggplant – trimmed, peeled, and sliced 1/2-inch thick
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 ½ (6 ounce) cans water
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (8 ounce) package fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
- ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease an 8×14-inch baking dish.
- Mix seasoned bread crumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and red pepper flakes in a shallow bowl. Brush eggplant slices with olive oil and press into bread crumb mixture to coat. Lay slices onto a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven until browned and tender, about 15 minutes. Remove eggplant and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Whisk tomato paste and water in a saucepan, place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Stir in basil, oregano, parsley, garlic, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper.
- Place eggplant slices into the prepared baking dish, overlapping the slices. Spoon tomato sauce over eggplant and top with mozzarella cheese and 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. If desired, broil for 1 to 2 more minutes to give cheese topping a golden color. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the breading ingredients. The actual amount of the breading consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 389 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 14 g |
| Cholesterol | 41 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 681 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 31 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Changed it up a bit. Pecorino and Pepper Jack instead of Parmesan and Mozzarella. No Bread Crumbs. Used Tony Cashiers Cajun Season instead of just S & P. Used Anchovy paste. I cut the eggplant very thin (1/4 inch) and fried each slice in olive oil. (dipped in egg and flour before frying). Instead of laying in shingles I stacked the eggplant with large slices on the bottom and small slices on top. 6 stacks with small amount of sauce and Pecorino between each layer. 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
I have tried many different Eggplant Parmesan recipes from this website and this is by far the best one. No tweaks/substitutions required. The sauce tastes great, the eggplant is always well cooked. My husband (a staunch carnivore) also prefers this the best and often asks for this meal!
Thank you for your positive feedback. I originally posted this recipe and want to add a few notes here: Instead of olive oil you can use Hellman’s mayonnaise, or one of your choosing, to brush on eggplant before baking. Remember to turn heat down in oven when baking second time or it will be mushy. Also, the sauce is great as pizza sauce or on chicken parmesan.
Love it! I add a few dollops of ricotta for extra moist and cheesy flavor,
Good way to use my eggplant from my garden.
Made this for dinner this evening and followed the recipe fairly closely. I doubled the sauce and used a pinch of white sugar instead of brown. Put some sauce in the dish first. Made two layers of eggplant with cheese and sauce between and plenty on top. Ended up cooking it for about a half hour. Wife loved it!! Will definitely make it again.
Excellent and easy! Even the kids ate it!
Results were delicious even with store bought sauce. Perfect amount for family of 4 when paired with pasta, bread and salad. Thanks for easy recipe!
I didn’t use the red pepper.
I made this for my daughter and I on a weeknight, trying to get her to taste new vegetables (which she hates). She actually liked it! I used a jar of Fine Herbs pasta sauce instead of making my own but otherwise followed the recipe here. It was really tasty, served over linguini.
I used egg as the sticking agent for the bread crumbs instead of olive oil, and store-bought sauce (Classico Tomato & Basil) instead making my own. Also let the eggplant cook initially for 20 minutes instead of 15. Really really good!
Absolutely delicious!
OMG! I love eggplant and so does my brother. We both loved this right out of the oven plain and then when the recipe was completed…it was soooo amazing! And YES, so easy! I served it with small 3-cheese tortellini. This will come to the table again in my house
I’ve made this dish a few times and really like it. I really like the sauce and now I make this sauce for all my spaghetti and pasta dishes that calls for jarred spaghetti sauce.
This is so much easier than the traditional recipe I’ve used for years. I’ll add a bit of garlic next time only because, well, you can never have enough garlic.
I made this with my own sauce that I had in the freezer with turkey italian sausage in it. It was easy and delish. For the reviewer that said it was mushy. It is vegetable not chicken so it has a different consistency and does feel soft and easy to chew. Maybe cutting it a little thicker would help. Also, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1/4 cup parmesan had to be doubled to do a whole eggplant.
The dish was beautifully make,everyone loved the dish.
Loved the eggplant baked over fried. Sauce was a little too acidic for us, but eggplant was fabulous. We made the eggplant like miniature pizza rounds and really enjoyed them this way and then made eggplant sandwiches on toasted french bread with lots of sauce and that was equally delicious.
No changes and definitely be making again!!
So delicious, made it and didn’t change anything, so good!!!! Everyone I made it for loved it as well.
Perfect! My family loved it! Will def make again!