The heavenly, salty, slightly sweet combination of rich tomato-y marinara, crispy creamy fried eggplant, and smoked mozzarella. I'd call this dish transcendent.
Ingredients
- unpeeled purple eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices: 1 piece
- fine sea salt: 1 tsp (or as needed)
- eggs: 2 piece
- whole milk: 1 Tbsp
- Italian-seasoned bread crumbs: 1 cup (or more if needed)
- extra-virgin olive oil: 0.75 cup (or as needed)
- prepared marinara sauce (such as De Cecco®): 1 jar (24 ounce jar)
- bunch fresh basil: 1 piece (chopped)
- smoked mozzarella cheese, very: 1 pack (8 ounce pack, sliced)
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese: 0.5 cup
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Line a plate with a paper towel; place a layer of 2 or 3 slices of eggplant onto the towel. Sprinkle eggplant with sea salt. Repeat layers of eggplant sprinkled with salt until all eggplant slices are stacked. Place 2 paper towels onto the stack and place a plate on top of the towels. Lay a heavy book or can of food onto the plate to squeeze out moisture. Allow to drip for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Rinse and pat dry.
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Beat eggs with milk in a shallow bowl. Place bread crumbs into a separate bowl. Dip eggplant slices in the egg mixture and gently press into the crumbs to coat; set aside.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish.
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Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; fry eggplant slices in the hot oil in small batches until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels.
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Pour about 1/4 cup of marinara sauce into the bottom of the prepared baking dish and arrange a layer of eggplant slices to cover the sauce. Scatter basil and a few slices of smoked mozzarella cheese over eggplant; repeat layers, ending with a layer of sauce on top. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
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Bake in the preheated oven until heated through and the cheese has melted, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
