My mother used to make this frequently; I hail from a large Italian family. Both delicious and resilient. Excellent anytime food. Peeling and draining the eggplant is the key to making delicious eggplant that isn’t soggy. A hearty supper can be made by serving with crusty Italian bread and a tossed salad. Although it appears to be a lot of labor, it is not. I wish you a pleasant supper.
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 medium eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 (16 ounce) package dry ziti pasta
- 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
- ½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- 1 (26 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce, or your favorite recipe
- 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the eggplant slices in a bowl, and sprinkle with salt. Let drain over a bowl in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I like to do this overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook for about 6 minutes, or until almost tender. It will cook the rest of the way in the oven. Drain. Mix together the ricotta cheese and eggs in a small bowl. Stir in half of the mozzarella cheese and Pecorino Romano cheese.
- Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Arrange layers of eggplant, cheese, ziti pasta, and more sauce all the way to the top of the pan. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until heated through and cheese is lightly browned.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 570 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 64 g |
| Cholesterol | 109 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 34 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 903 mg |
| Sugars | 12 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was great -I modified this into a Veggie Baked Ziti – I sauteed many vegetables like string beans cut small,mushrooms, peppers, some onions lots of garlic then added them to the sauce. The Eggplant I peeled, cut up into chunks, sauteed and later added then to the sauce. I layered it like lasagna..used your instructions for the cheese…I added slices of provolone on top…I baked it covered with foil for 40 mins…took the foil off for 10-15 minutes at the end…Delicious!! Thanks
Okay. Added more sauce. Next time I’ll add garlic for more flavor. Downside was that the cheese on top was burned when I took it out of the oven. I would suggest putting tin foil over the casserole about last 10-15 minutes in the oven.
My family loved this recipe. The only change I made was to dip the eggplant slices in egg and breadcrumbs before baking it.
I made this ziti over the weekend for my party. I made a few changes to the sauce which simply took it over the top! I used 1 can of Tomato Puree, 1 can of Crushed tomato, 1 can of tomato paste with 1 large onion, chopped and 6 pressed garlic cloves. Everyone loved it!
Ingredients are awesome, but u should make 3 changes: more sauce, double the ricotta and most importantly bread and fry the eggplant first!
I substitute Italian sausage for the eggplant. Brown the sausage first. I also cook onion and green pepper with the sausage and a can of diced tomatoes (drained).
Just made this for dinner. Made quite a few changes as soon as I read the recipe. I skipped the first step because I didn’t have the time and also because my eggplant had no seeds at all!!! That’s a first for me. But skipping that step didn’t seem to make a difference. I also knew it needed some serious spicing added!!! Added garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt & pepper to the cheese mixture. That was a no brainer!!!. I made my own sauce and added the same spices with addition of red pepper flakes. I don’t know how anyone could prepare this dish written the way it was. Of course it had no flavor!!! I also used twice as much sauce than the recipe called for. But the recipe is a good starting point. I’ll make this again (with all my changes). Might even throw in some ground Italian sausage next time!!!! Now what am I going to do with all these leftovers???!!!
I diced the eggplant and used fresh tomatoes from the garden seasoned with Italian seasoning – mixed all ingredients together instead of layer – turned out great!
Definitely needs more flavor so I will have to do some tweaking but this recipe was very easy and still a huge hit.
We love eggplant but we didn’t really like it in this recipe. It really needs more flavor.
A great way to use eggplant! I admit to being a bit nervous about not cooking the eggplant first but, if you slice the eggplant very thin, no need to worry. They cooked beautifully with the ziti. Aside from using about twice more sauce than the cook suggested, I followed this recipe exactly as written and it was a huge winner for me. Thank you for sharing!!
I made this without draining the eggplant, and it didn’t turn out soggy at all. The texture was nice, and it made a good hearty meal with garlic bread. My only complaint was that it needed a lot more zing than just the marinara sauce. I will definitely try this recipe again, but I’ll add my own seasonings, herbs, and probably some extra veggies for more flavor.
Eggplant was blah. The rest wasn’t exciting. Not to mention we had WAY too much leftovers for 2 people. Will not be making this again.
My husband is a huge meat eater, so I diced the eggplant up & breaded it with Italian bread crumbs in order to give it more of a meaty texture. I added some mushrooms, onions, tomatoes & zucchini to the bottom layer. I used whole wheat pasta & left it out of the layers because I had accidentally over cooked them over the stove & didn’t want them to get anymore soggy in the oven. I just served the Eggplant Parmesan on top of the noodles like you would spaghetti. The cheesy layer on top of the eggplant & other veggies was delish! Will definitely make this again.
I had my reservations about this recipe and rightfully so. If I could give this no stars I would, simply because the eggplant added nothing, actually detracted from, the ziti. It was flavorless and most people, including myself just kind of picked it out of the dish. I should have stuck with my spinach baked ziti instead. If I were to try this again, a big if, I would either make or use the ready-made frozen breaded eggplant slices. Maybe then it would meld with the dish better.
This was my first time cooking eggplant and I think it went really well! What attracted me to eggplant is how much cheaper it is than meat and still satisfying. This reminds me of lasagna, and I like that this dish includes pasta so it is more filling. I made a few changes. Before doing anything, I preheated the oven to 350 to “pre-cook” the eggplant. I beat two eggs in one bowl and had another bowl of Italian bread crumbs. I dipped the eggplant slices in the egg and then in the crumbs, and then put the slices on a baking sheet. I cooked the eggplant in the oven for about 10 minutes on each side so that it was a little crispy and would hold up better. Then, when layering it all together, I added a layer of cooked fresh spinach on top of the sauce but underneath the eggplant. I left out the egg in the cheese layer, because I had already dipped the eggplant in egg and I just figured that was enough. I didn’t miss the egg from the cheese layer, it was plenty rich. I used two jars of sauce for this, because I like a good amount of sauce and other reviewers said it was dry with the recommended amount. And I added some sauteed onion and garlic to the tomato sauce. Mine really came out amazing and I can’t wait to make it again!
This was really good, the next time I will cut up the eggplant in to small pieces and mix everything together more like a traditional baked ziti. i will make this again!!!!
it came out okay def a good dish but my motherr messed it up because she had the wonderful idea of soaking it in salt water for an HOUR and then she rinsed and patted it dry and i made the rest when it came out of the oven it was fine except the eggplant was soggy SOOO DONT SOAK IT IN WATERRRR unless if you like soagy eegplant il be making this again without the help of my mother of course haha
Very flavorful! A great way to use eggplant.
Definitely add more sauce to this! Overall the taste was great, but it was a little on the dry side.
Just made this for large group of friends – it was wonderful!!! I used a bit more sauce than it called for, so I could make sure the top didn’t get too crunchy. The recipe said it made 8 servings, but I fed 10 people and still had leftovers for about 2 people. Great easy meal for a dinner party!