I’ve made this recipe before, love eggplant … this time I went all out and made sauce with canned San Marzano tomatoes and homemade ricotta. At least I did those two the day before … Whew!
I doubled the recipe, love baking the slices in the oven. First, I sprayed parchment paper with TJ olive oil spray so I would use too much olive oil on eggplant.
I had some freshly cooked spinach (can’t stand frozen) that I mixed into filling. Put a little sauce on top as well as the bottom and used fresh whole milk mozzarella slices on top. Final outcome, needs a little salt but I’m very afraid of oversalting. Some comments said to salt and rinse slices of eggplant first so I did this and was afraid of adding more. Oh well … you can add some at the table.
This is good to make ahead and then heat up before serving.
Someone on this board once recommended baking eggplant instead of frying Dip in egg, bread crumbs. A little olive oil on pan and drizzle with more. Sadly, I can’t remember your name, but I silently thank you every time I make it.
I also love grilling sliced and salted eggplant brushed heavily with olive oil. You can get the eggplant well marked and then put it in the oven on a baking sheet until soft.
I made this with canned tomatoes, but fresh or diced tomatoes are more good. I used ricotta cheese and it was a little too rich for my taste so next time I’ll just add some more sauce.
The recipe didn’t call for mozzarella on top but I splurged at WF and sliced a log of expensive Fior di latte. Next time I would omit (only put shredded mozzarella in filling) because it just got hard, rubbery. I did put a little sauce on top too, that I’d do again.
I made this this week as well and followed the recipe pretty closely. SK notes that you can use jarred sauce and I had an open jar of Rao’s that needed to be used, so mixed that with about 3/4 can of diced fire roasted tomatoes. I liked the combo of chunky + smooth in the sauce, but the peanut gallery gave the “blobs” a thumbs down.
I also “grilled” the eggplant on a stove top grill pan, putting the finished slices in a dutch oven as I grilled the next batch. I think the dutch oven ended up steaming the eggplant a bit and it worked out to be a really nice texture. Will have to remember for next time!
Overall, a delicious recipe that is loads easier than frying.
