This summer Italian Baked Eggplant Parmesan Casserole (aka Eggplant Parmigiana) takes eggplant slices coated in pesto, grated mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese, and layers them lasagna-style with a fabulous roasted tomato - red pepper sauce you'll want to use for everything.
If you want to simplify this recipe, use your favorite jarred pasta sauce. Or make the pasta sauce ahead of time.
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- 🍆 What is Eggplant Parmesan?
- ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- 🧅 Ingredients for Eggplant Parmesan
- 📝 Instructions
- 👩🍳 Do you need to pre-salt the eggplant?
- ⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- 👩🍳 Preparation Tips
- 💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- 🌾 Make it Gluten Free
- 📇 More Eggplant Recipes You Might Like
- Eggplant Parmigiana with Pesto
I am an Italophile, meaning I have a deep appreciation for everything Italian. Its people, history, culture and food. And I love learning about the roots of food that most of us associate with Italy. Except when it came to eggplant. I was an eggplant avoider.
But times change. For me the turning point came in culinary school with a Roasted Eggplant Soup pureed with a roasted tomato. It was instant love, and I started making it at home every week.
Then I went to Italy and had a classic Sicilian pasta dish with eggplant, tomatoes and capers. When I came home, I started making THAT eggplant recipe every week.
🍆 What is Eggplant Parmesan?
Eggplant Parmesan layers fried slices of breaded eggplant with cheese and a marinara sauce. It's often baked as a casserole, and is considered comfort food in Italy.
Naples may have contributed the mozzarella ingredient that's now a standard in this dish.
Parma, naturally lays claim because of the Parmesan cheese. Although the word Parmesan in the recipe title may refer to an Italian word translated as "shutters", for the layered appearance of this dish.
And Sicily lays claim to this dish since the eggplant likely found its way to Italy via Sicily with Arabs bringing foods from India. And if you think about it, Eggplant Parmesan is very similar to Moussaka, a popular Turkish eggplant dish.
Use this link for more information on the roots of the Eggplant Parmesan we know today.
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- It's a hearty one-dish vegetarian dinner.
- Perfect way to make eggplant lovers out of eggplant haters.
- There are shortcuts to make the preparation go faster (see below).
- Great casserole when cooking for a crowd.
🧅 Ingredients for Eggplant Parmesan
The secret to faster and easier meals often lies in the ingredients. For example, store-bought items and ingredients you make ahead and store in the refrigerator (or freezer) can turn a 60-minute recipe into a 30-minutes meal or less.
For the all of the ingredients, measurements and directions for the Eggplant Parmesan Casserole, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Tomato pasta sauce - Nothing beats a homemade tomato sauce, and I have several on this blog. The recipe card below links to one of my favorites. Or you can purchase your favorite jarred marinara sauce. If do this, I highly recommend Rao Marinara Sauce.
- Eggplant - I recommend smaller eggplant as they tend to be less bitter. I've use both globe eggplant, which is most the common variety in my markets, or Italian eggplant with great success.
- Eggs - this is just to get the pesto, cheese and breadcrumbs to stick to the eggplant.
- Basil pesto - it only takes a few minutes to make your own, or pick some up at the grocery.
- Flours - I use a combination of all-purpose and corn flours, but you can use only all-purpose wheat flour.
- Cheeses - I use a combination of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
- Panko bread crumbs - super important for giving the eggplant slices a little crunch.
- Herbs and spices - I use dried oregano, salt and pepper.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
📝 Instructions
Detailed instructions for making this Eggplant Parmesan Casserole are in the recipe card below, but here's an overview!
Step 1
Make the roasted tomato sauce. If you make your own tomato sauce instead of using a store bought one, make it first. Otherwise purchase a bottle of your favorite marinara. Check out the Ingredients List above for my favorite.
Step 2
Coat the slices of eggplant. Arrange 3 bowls on a work surface. Whisk together the eggs and pesto in the first bowl. Combine the flour, salt and pepper in the second bowl. And toss together the Parmesan and breadcrumbs in the third. Slice the eggplant, and dip each slice in the first, second and then third bowl.
Step 3
Crisp the breaded eggplant slices. Sauté the eggplant slices on a very lightly oiled griddle or skillet.
Step 4
Build the casserole and bake. Layer the breaded eggplant slices in a casserole dish with the pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese, and bake.
Step 5
Serve. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
👩🍳 Do you need to pre-salt the eggplant?
In many dishes, eggplant is best salted and drained for a couple of hours to remove some liquid and temper its bitterness. I've made this casserole both ways, and it didn't make any difference at all. This is probably due to 2 reasons: (1) there are a lot of flavors going on in this dish to balance out any bitterness; and (2) the breading seals in the moisture. However, if you're interested in how to salt and drain eggplant, this is a good post to review.
Even Carnivorous Maximus eats this without any meat in sight, and doesn't miss it. (Gasp.)
⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- Purchase your favorite marinara pasta sauce instead of making the one in this recipe from scratch.
- If you make the tomato sauce from scratch, you can make it up to a week ahead and store in the refrigerator in jars.
- Use your favorite ready-made pesto at your local market.
- Buy pre-grated cheeses or purchase slices of mozzarella and lay them over the eggplant layers.
👩🍳 Preparation Tips
- If you make your own sauce, use a combination of Beefsteak and Roma tomatoes when making the sauce, particularly when tomatoes are at their best. The Roma tomatoes add a rich, meaty texture to the juicy Beefsteak variety.
- Stack the eggplant slices on top of each other when assembling this lasagna-style casserole. This makes it easier to serve and creates natural serving sizes for a crowd.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
- Fontina cheese makes a fabulous substitute for mozzarella cheese if you have some on hand.
- For a hearty dinner, serve this casserole over pasta with a little extra pasta sauce.
- Pump up the protein by adding a can of chickpeas (or cook up a batch from dried chickpeas) to the tomato pasta sauce.
🌾 Make it Gluten Free
Use corn flour in place of wheat flour.
📇 More Eggplant Recipes You Might Like
Roasted Eggplant Soup with Tomatoes
Charred Eggplant and Chickpea Stew
Sicilian Fusilli with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Capers
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Eggplant Parmigiana with Pesto
Equipment
- Chef's knife
- Whisk
- Griddle or large skillet
- 9" X 13" baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds globe eggplant or Italian eggplant
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons Basil Pesto
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cups shredded fresh mozzarella cheese, divided
- 24 ounces your favorite pasta sauce or make your own
Instructions
- Slice the eggplant into ½-inch rounds. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat, and lightly oil.
- Arrange three bowls on a work surface. A shallow bowl works best. Stir together the flour, salt and pepper in the first bowl. Whisk the eggs together with the pesto in the second bowl. Combine half of the Parmesan cheese, all of the breadcrumbs and oregano in the third bowl.Mix the remaining Parmesan cheese with the mozzarella cheese.
- Dip an eggplant slice into the flour, followed by the egg mixture, and finally the cheese. Transfer it to the hot griddle, and repeat with each slice of eggplant. Arrange as many slices as you can fit on the griddle or skillet. I can fit around 8 slices of various sizes on my griddle. Cook for 5 minutes per side, until the eggplant surfaces are golden brown. Set them aside on a plate, and repeat with the remaining eggplant slices. For a 9" X 13" baking dish, I typically use 16 slices.
- Make Ahead Tip: At this point, the eggplant parmesan carefully stacked in ziplock baggies or an airtight container. Tuck into the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Spread a thin layer of pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9" X 13" or slightly smaller baking dish. Next, arrange a layer of the eggplant slices and sprinkle with ⅓ of the cheeses. Pour half of the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the eggplant and cheese, and layer the remaining eggplant slices on top. Spread half of the remaining cheese and all of the remaining tomato sauce over the top layer of eggplant slices.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Add the remaining cheese over the top and bake another 15 minutes.
- Cool slightly before serving.
apuginthekitchen
Delicious recipe Susan and I love your Farmers Market blogging group, we should do that here in NYC. Everything you said is so true, most of us have never met face to face but we know more about each others lives, families, tastes, etc,,.. than possibly people they have met. We are a close knit group and I truly love sharing and meeting (virtually) others of like mind.
Your eggplant parmigiano is wonderful. BTW, I am enjoying your hubby's blog also.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
You should definitely do this in NYC!! You have such a wonderful group and such active farmer's markets, it would be perfect!! And I'm so happy you're reading Myles' blog !!!! 🙂 Makes me very, very happy.
Rebecca
Oh. My. Just bought tomatoes for canning today and am getting ready for my Moussaka extravaganza. Think I may have to add this one in, too! Will report on how it tastes with that wonderful farmers' market pesto. 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Yes, yes, yes!! I'd love to hear about your Moussaka extravaganza too 🙂 All our tomatoes are still green, or just in the flowering stage in our back yard. But in another month, I'll be canning tomatoes too!!
Jane, The Heritage Cook
Oh Susan, you are talking The Artist's language with this dish. He is tugging on my arm begging me to make it for him, LOL! This is a total winner and absolutely beautiful!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thank you so much Jane!!! Even Carnivorous Maximus really liked it!!
Choc Chip Uru
You are making me rethink any diet I have ever taken, this cheesy goodness of a casserole looks absolutely delicious! 😀
I'll keep telling myself that the eggplant will keep me healthy!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Eggplant definitely makes this healthy. And actually I'm glad you mentioned this. I need to insert the fat, carbs, calories, etc in the recipe. I'm trying to do that now, and keep forgetting when I'm in the final rush to get a post scheduled 🙂
Erika
Uh YUM. I love so much about this post.
1) Bay Area farmer's market potluck group sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! I would probably eat wayyyy more than my fair share if you brought this to a potluck where I was present 😉
2) These photos are gorgeous--they look straight out of CookingLight or something to me!
3) if your husband ate this happily, that gives me so much hope for getting Erik to love this--can't wait to try making it for him!
4) Do you have any suggestions for what to do with a load of fresh basil? You're one of the recipe creators I look up to, so thought I'd ask 🙂 I'm going to make pesto and probably bruschetta, but other than that, I'm racking my brain to think of really summery dishes that use basil!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Wish you were still here in the Bay Area - you would love this group!!! And thanks so much for your comment on the photos. You're someone I really look up to for photography!! So basil. Pesto is always good as you know. If you have a ton, you could make basil oil with it too. I love having herbed oils around for vinaigrettes in the summer. And it makes a great gift. You can also dry some for fresh dried basil. I have a heap of oregano and that's what I'm doing with it. Then I got some cute little jars and I'm giving it away to friends as a little gift when we get together for dinners.
Erika
Oh yes!! Basil oil sounds so great--thanks!! 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
You're so welcome!! Enjoy!
Jennie Schacht
Looks great! I have a meat lover at home whom I'm quite certain would be perfectly satisfied by your meatless masterpiece!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Myles was surprisingly accommodating when I advised him there wouldn't be any meat for him when I served this for dinner last week. And he went back for seconds - which never happens with a vegetarian dish.
Jennifer @ Peanut Butter and Peppers
Oh my gosh your lasagna looks out of this world! It is just beautiful!! I love all of the flavors you have in the dish!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Jennifer!!
Beth (OMG! Yummy)
What a lovely recipe Susan. I adore eggplant parmesan and appreciate all of your tips and tricks such as making the sauce ahead of time. Those kind of suggestions make attacking this kind of dish so approachable for anyone who is time-challenged or experience-challenged.
Great to meet you through this virtual dinner party and look forward to a real meet-up sometime soon and our next online gathering as well.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Beth! So nice to meet you too - I hope we do this again, and have an opportunity to meet sometime!!
Maureen
I love eggplant and this casserole would suit me perfectly!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I've come to like eggplant later in life, but it's become a real favorite of mine now!
cheri
HI Susan, does this mean you are in San Francisco? love that place. Looks like you keeping pretty busy. Anyway this casserole looks delicious, very clever to add pesto sauce.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Yes, we live about 15 minutes outside SF. Close enough to get in pretty quickly, far enough away to be out of city chaos :-). Then we have a condo in Tahoe where we try to spend 1 week a month when we really want to escape.
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com
Susan, this is similar to the way I make eggplant parm, but the pesto and kalamata olives you use would definitely kick it up a notch! Will give it a try next time!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
The kalamata olives in particular kick it up for me!
Robin Gagnon
This looks so much better than the grilled eggplant I made last night for dinner.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Well there's all that cheese, after all 🙂 But grilled eggplant is so good in salads!!! I do a panzanella with grilled eggplant and fresh tomatoes and it's so, so good 🙂
The Wimpy Vegetarian
BTW - love your blog! I just went over to visit, and tried to leave a comment on your watercolor smoothie. I totally want to make it!!! By tap influence wouldn't let me post the comment. I couldn't figure out how to get it through them. Sorry!!
mjskitchen
Thank you for reposting this. We are growing eggplant this year and Eggplant Parmigiana is one of the meals I plan to make. Love you recipe! Growing big hearty tomato, I can use them as well. YAY!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I wish so much we could have a garden like yours here in the mountains. We have so many wild animals, I'm not sure we could ever protect it. I will live vicariously through you!!
Lisa
This was fantastic and so comforting and authentic Italian. I'm a meat eater trying to eat healthier and this recipe is so delicious. A few things... it is a lot of work but worth it. I used larger eggplants from my garden and it worked really well. To balance the potential bitterness of the larger eggplants, i added just a rounded teaspoon of sugar to the sauce. I ran out of the breadcrumb and cheese mixture during prep and so needed to make more of it. Next time I will just make more to start with. I made fresh pesto which was so good but couldn't really taste it in the final product. But it doesn't matter because this dish is so tasty and im sure the pesto has something to do with the awesome flavor. Thats it! maybe it will be less work after i make it again and know what to expect. Thank you!
Lisa Szymanski
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I'm so happy you liked it so much! And yes, it's a bit of trouble. In fact I just added this afternoon some ideas for shortcuts under a new section I'm adding to many of my recipes - How to Simplify and Save Time! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your own tips!! And I'll make a note of the amounts of dipping stuff for the eggplant 🙂
LiseyK
Absolutely delicious recipe. Love the idea of mixing the pesto with the egg dip. I drizzled more pesto on my version and found I needed almost double the panko/parmesan mixture. My husband wants me to make it again for his birthday in a few weeks! Thank you - will now check out some more of your recipes 🙂
Susan Pridmore
This makes me soooo happy!! Thank you so much for letting me know!!