Healthy Eggplant Parmigiana

By DearGaby, on August 2nd, 2009

I love eggplant parmigiana. It is one of my favorite things to eat. However, as you know it can be packed with calories: the eggplant is fried with breadcrumbs and packed with lots of cheeses. I have taken the classic eggplant parmigiana recipe and got rid of many of the calories. My version is not fried and breadcrumbs are used only on top. Although my version has less calories than the original, the flavor is wonderful. You won’t miss a thing except of course, the calories.

Ingredients

4 eggplants*cleaned, sliced and drained (see note below)
3/4 lbs fresh mozarella (thinly sliced)
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano cheese
a large bunch of fresh basil (washed and ready to use)
3-4 cups freshly prepared tomato sauce (or store bought)
2 tbs italian style bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 425° with oven racks placed in center of oven. Meanwhile, Pat the eggplant slices dry. Then on lightly oiled non stick baking pans, put the eggplant slices in a single layer in the pans. Light spray olive oil on the eggplant slices and place in oven for 6-8 minutes. Take the pans out, flip over the eggplant slices and lightly spray the eggplant with olive oil. Return to oven for another 6-7 minutes. Remove from oven then cool.

Once cool, take out a medium baking dish (I use pyrex) and lightly spoon some tomato sauce all over bottom of pan to prevent eggplant from sticking when cooking. Than layer as follows: eggplant slices slightly overlapping , than basil leaves (Make sure there is a leaf on each slice of eggplant) , than mozarella and parmigiana cheeses than a little tomato sauce just enough to cover. Repeat until baking dish is full. You should finish the top with a final layer of eggplant. On top, put more sauce, sprinkle some parmigiana cheese, add a few basil leaves and sprinkle some italian style bread crumbs on top. Salt and pepper to taste. (this can be done ahead of time. Cover and place in refrigerator if not cooking right away).

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake eggplant parmigiana in oven for 30-45 minutes or until sauce is hot and bubbly. Remove from oven and let it coolk for 15-20 minutes and serve with extra tomato sauce and cheese on the side. If you serve it right away, it could be liquidy. If it is, no worries, simply drain it before slicing it. Mangia!

*Note: Eggplants contain alot of liquid so you should extract as much of the liquid you can before using them in a recipe.First take sliced eggplant, sprinkle salt on the slices and put the slices on a platter with a heavy pot on top in order to extract the liquid. Let it sit for at least 2 hours. You will be amazed on how much liquid actually is removed from the eggplant. Do not skip this step or your eggplant parmigiana will be watery.

About Gabrielle:
Gabrielle Ottavio is certified as an International Image and Style Consultant. She is a member of AICI, which is the leading and largest professional association of personal and corporate image consultants worldwide. She possesses several years consulting experience in the areas of staffing, one on one executive coaching, career couseling and image consulting. Gabrielle is also on the board of ISACA, an international organization comprised of professionals and students, IT Women, and the Fashion Group International, comprised of professionals in the fashion business.