Baked Eggplant Parmesan Casserole

Happy New Year!

I can’t believe we are already into the second week of January! My recipe this week is a family favorite, Eggplant Parmesan. It is the perfect comfort food for chilly days and evenings.  The recipe seems a bit complicated, but it comes together easily and is fun to make.

Hope you have as much fun making and eating it as I did!

Please find printable .PDF file attached to this story.

Ingredients

2 fresh eggplants
15 saltine crackers
1 cup of dry, grated Parmesan cheese divided
8 tablespoons of Italian Seasoning
2 jars of commercially prepared tomato marinara sauce
1/2 cup of vegetable oil, plus 2 Tablespoons ( I like to use peanut oil for frying)
6 eggs
2 packages of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 medium onion
1 orange or yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 carton of cottage cheese

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spoon a thin layer of the marinara sauce into the bottom of a baking pan, creating a layer of red sauce.

Use a food processor with an S-blade to crush the saltine crackers. Add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and 4 Tablespoons of Italian seasoning spice to the crushed crackers and process all of these together for 20 seconds.

Move the cracker crumb mixture to a pie plate.
Beat 4 eggs together and place these into a shallow dish near the cracker crumb mixture.

Meanwhile dice the onion and peppers and sauté on the stovetop in 2 tablespoons of oil on medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent.

Heat the one-half cup of oil in a large frying pan. Peel the eggplants and slice horizontally into 1/4 inch slices. Take each slice of eggplant and dip into the beaten egg and then dredge into the cracker crumb mixture. As you get several slices coated, making sure the oil is thoroughly heated, fry the eggplant slices.

As they brown, turn each slice. Once a slice is golden brown and softens, move it onto a layer of paper towels. Continue this process until each eggplant slice is fried.

Take the package of cottage cheese, mix it with two remaining eggs, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.

Layer the baking dish with a layer of fried eggplant
Place a layer of the onion and pepper mixture over the eggplant layer.
Add a layer of marinara sauce.
Add a layer of fried eggplant
Add a layer of cottage  cheese mixture.
Add a layer of eggplant
Add a layer of mozzarella cheese.
Add a layer marinara sauce.
Add a layer of fried eggplant
Cover with mozzarella cheese
Finish with a final layer of any remaining fried eggplant.
Pour a final layer of marinara.

Bake for 45 minutes until one hour. Enjoy!

Shannon Beigert is a chef and baker who loves to entertain guests at her Olympia home. If you want to let her know that this recipe worked well for you, send her a note at shannon@theJOLTnews.com