The late, great John Lennon loved this recipe so much that he wrote a memorable song about it.
Not really.
But I did use a really bad pun of his song as the title for this article, so it is almost the same thing.
Eggplant Parmesan is a vegetarian dish that even carnivores will occasionally order in a fine Italian restaurant.
Anyone who has made Eggplant Parmesan at home knows it is a time consuming and messy ordeal that involves splattering grease on the stove followed by baking the ingredients in a dish that requires scraping.
Here's a way to make Eggplant Parmesan as easy as 1 2.
That's right, you don't even have time to count to 3.
Well, maybe you do, but does that really matter?
First, you buy an eggplant at a farmer's market or Sprout's or whatever source you find superior for fresh vegetables. I usually pay about 99 cents per eggplant, so I buy the biggest one I can find. If you pay by the pound, a small one is enough for a meal and will probably fit in the baking dish more easily.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Line a glass baking dish entirely with our old Q-C C friend Reynolds Pan Lining Paper. Overlap the edges so that no food bakes on glass. This is the key to easy cleanup. Pour Progresso Italian Style Bread Crumbs into a little pile on one end of the dish (inside the dish is obviously the less messy way to go).
Cut eggplant cross-wise into circles about 3/8 to 1/2 inches thick.
In a relatively flat bowl, break an egg and beat it with a fork. Alternatively, you can pour about an inch of milk. Or you can use some combination of those two if you started using milk and realized you didn't have enough. Add more as necessary.
With a fork, put a piece of eggplant into the bowl to cover on one side, and then the other. Put the slice in the bread crumbs and flip it again. Now set it at the other half of the dish. When you run out of bread crumbs, add more. Repeat the process with all the eggplant, and you'll have a pile of eggplant ready to be fried.
Here's the big Quick-Clean difference. Bake, don't fry, the breaded eggplant. It may not be as perfectly crispy as when you fry it in oil, but it has less fat, is quicker to make and, most importantly, far less messy.
Ideally, your dish is large enough to fit all of the eggplant in one level, but if you bought the biggest eggplant like I always do, then you don't have room for it all on the bottom and have to layer them. By the way, you'll probably have some extra bread crumbs at the end of the pan used for coating. Don't worry about that. Just try to judge how much you really need for the last few pieces of eggplant and then spread the remaining crumbs as thin as you can. It doesn't seem to make any difference once baked, as it either sticks to the eggplant or remains in the baking dish.
Or, you could bread the eggplant on wax paper separate for the baking dish, which really isn't much messier as long as you don't let crumbs spill when you crumple up the wax paper to throw it away. That's the way I used to do it, and there is something to be said for that method, because you aren't stacking eggplant in one half of the dish to be redistributed later. In any case, put eggplant uniformly around the baking dish.
If the oven has reached 400 degrees (yes, the preparation takes no more than that much time), put the eggplant into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Wash the dipping bowl and fork using anti-bacterial dish soap.
After 20 minutes, carefully remove the dish and set it on a heat-safe surface. If you used the whole eggplant, then most likely they are stacked. One layer makes for crispier eggplant, and sometimes I only use enough eggplant for one level and save the rest in a refrigerated Baggie for use the next day, but eggplant parmesan is a great leftover, and the crispiness of the eggplant doesn't seem to make much difference once the marinara sauce has been added.
Don't use too much marinara. A tablespoon full per eggplant slice is usually plenty. Move around the top layers of eggplant so that you can put marinara on the bottom pieces. All eggplant slices get their own tablespoon. DO NOT simply pour marinara sauce on top of the eggplant, or you' just get a big goopy mess. Save the leftover pasta sauce for making Q-C C Thin Crust Pizza or possibly Lasagmlette (an egg dish which we'll cover later).
Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully remove the dish from the oven and place it on a heat-safe surface.
Now, it is time for the crowning touch. Most people would use Italian cheeses including fresh grated Parmesan Cheese, and saying otherwise sounds crazy, but I just use the same Mexican grated cheese I use for most dishes.
If you have guests, you probably should add some freshly grated Parmesan, which is far different from that found in those cardboard tubes with plastic shakers at the end. However, even if it isn't close to be technically right, I find grated Mexican cheese works fine. Lift some of the top pieces to put cheese on the bottom layer of eggplant. Then cover the dish liberally with grated cheese of your choice. Always be careful working with hot dishes.
Bake another 15 or 20 minutes. Let it cool about 5 minutes before serving, if you can resist the aroma that long.
A few months ago, I saw a very funny video about a couple dining at the home of vegetarian friends that raised this legitimate point: when known vegetarians come over, the cook will inevitably prepare a vegetable entree for them, but when vegetarians host a meal, they never serve meat.
If you're a vegetarian, I doubt you would fix Chicken Parmesan for those guests, but you could if you felt so inclined, assuming you have a second glass baking dish.
To make Parmesan Chicken, the directions are quite similar. The only difference is that you take two fresh chicken breasts and slice them in half to make fillets about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick. Bread them and back them in a lined baking dish just as you did the eggplant, and then follow the same recipe.
Whether you make Eggplant Parmesan or Chicken Parmesan, the final cleanup should be as simple as throwing away the lining paper. You can use the fork to eat for eating your dinner.
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