Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

I'd bought a beautiful purple eggplant from the local produce stand last week but never got around to cooking it. A couple days ago I sliced it up thinly, salted it and let it sit in a collander for 1/2 hour, then rinsed it off and patted it dry. I was meaning to make eggplant parmesan but never got around to it, so I bagged up the slices and threw them in the fridge. And promptly forgot about them. Until today, when I was rummaging through the bottom drawer of the fridge and found them, slightly brown but still nice and firm. "I wonder if they'd still be good eating," I thought. Indeed, they were delicious.

By the way, I'm a big fan of stacks and rolls and any other individual serving type of construction because it helps me to maintain portion control. It's also easier to divvy up into leftover boxes for lunch the next day.

Eggplant Parmesan Stacks
Adapted from this recipe.


Ingredients:

• 1 large purple eggplant, thinly sliced into rounds (I kept the skin on)
  
• salt
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 part whole wheat panko bread crumbs to 1 part grated parmesan (see? no measurements)
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt to taste (I love this stuff)
• PAM
  
• 1 jar Trader Joe's Organic Marinara Sauce
• 1 cup (8 oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella

Directions:

• Liberally sprinkle salt over eggplant slices. Place the slices in a collander and let drain for 1/2 hour. Rinse thoroughly with water and pat dry between paper towels. Make sure they're dry!
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine bread crumbs, parmesan and seasoned salt in a large shallow bowl.
• Dip eggplant slices in whisked eggs, then dredge in bread crumb mixture to coat both sides. Spread slices out, single layer, onto a baking sheet sprayed with PAM.
• Bake slices for about 7 - 10 minutes, then turn them over and bake another 7 - 10 minutes until nice and golden and crispy on the outside.
• Eat 2 or 3 slices fresh from the oven and feed a slice to your enthusiastic toddler (blow on it first, it's hot!).
• In a square 9" baking pan, spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom. Make 4 stacks, layering eggplant alternately with marinara and mozzarella until you run out of eggplant slices. Top each stack with another spoonful of marinara and sprinkle of mozzarella.
• Bake 10 minutes until nice and bubbly and golden brown.
• Serve immediately.

Todd had to work late tonight, so after everything was done baking, I lowered the oven temp to "warm" and left it in there until he got home (about 1 hour kept on "warm"). The cheese was a little dry on top, but everything else was still delicious. And Todd, who would never voluntarily eat eggplant, devoured one whole stack in less than 5 minutes and exclaimed in between mouthfuls, "you need to save this recipe." True story.