Rustic Spinach and Eggplant Parmesan

Have you noticed the numerous eggplant recipes on this blog? It’s fair to say that eggplant is one of my favorite things to cook. I love the silky texture it takes on after being properly prepared, the melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Of course, if you don’t prepare eggplant properly, it tends to be tough and bitter. Ugh. That’s why it’s essential you take the time to follow the preparation steps. They’re very easy, and only require you to work about 5 minutes of the time. For the rest of the 30 minutes, the eggplant just hangs out, doing its thing.

Most of the time, Eggplant Parmesan is fried. Yuck. I’m probably one of the few Americans who really cannot stand deep fried food, and I’ll probably take some slack for it, but I truly find it mostly disgusting. In my version of Eggplant Parmesan, I use a method I learned in The Sunday’s Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook. They have this phenomenal recipe for Baked Eggplant Sandwiches, and boy oh boy are they tasty! I prepare the Baked Eggplant Sandwiches, then make a more traditional Eggplant Parmesan out of them, using Parmesan cheese and tomato sauce. For this recipe, I also added spinach. If you’re not a fan of spinach, by all means, leave it out.

Ingredients:
1 medium to large eggplant
2 cups loosely packed spinach
12 oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
½ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 jar marinara sauce, or your own homemade recipe
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs, well-beaten

Guidelines:

Slice your eggplant into slices about ¼-3/8 inch thick. Working in batches, lay the slices in a colander, lightly salting each layer. Once all the layers have been laid and salted, place a heavy object, such as bowl, on top of the eggplant. Let rest for 30 minutes. Salting and pressing helps break down the cell walls and release bitterness. Once the 30 minutes has elapsed, remove the bowl and gently pat dry the layers of eggplant, removing what salt you can.

In three pie pans or something similar, place the flour in one, the bread crumbs in another, and the eggs in yet another.

Take two eggplant slices, and sandwich a slice of mozzarella and a bunch of spinach in between them. Dredge the sandwich first in flour, then in egg, then in the bread crumbs. (Note: You will probably have leftover spinach; that’s fine, you’ll use it below.) Place the sandwiches on a non-stick baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the cheese is melted.

Once the sandwiches come out of the oven, place them in a casserole dish, top with the marinara sauce, the remaining spinach, and the Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or just long enough that the sauce heats through and the Parmesan cheese melts.