Monday, May 14, 2012

Low Calorie Gluten Free Baked Eggplant Parmesan

I was recently talking to my Dad and he mentioned the eggplant in his garden. Just talking about it made me want eggplant so the next time I went to town I picked up one. I remember my Mom cooking eggplant when I was growing up and she went to a lot of trouble so I've never been a big fan of eggplant. Not that I didn't like it, I really did, but I thought in order to make it taste good you had to go through the same process my Mom did so to me it wasn't worth the trouble.

My new experience proved that you can make a great eggplant dish with no trouble at all! So the next time you have an eggplant here is a easy low calorie baked eggplant parmesan just for you!

    Baked Eggplant Parmesan

    •    1 large eggplant
    •    1 tbsp olive oil
    •    12 oz fat free ricotta
    •    1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
    •    1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
    •    2 large eggs
    •    2 cups Italian Cheese
    •    3 cups spaghetti sauce
    •    salt

Start by making the sauce if you don't have any already made. While the sauce simmers, peel and slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lightly salt the slices and lay on paper towels to soak up any extra moisture.

Preheat oven to 450°. Brush eggplant lightly with olive oil on both sides and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning half way through until eggplant is golden brown.

In a medium bowl combine ricotta, eggs, parsley and 1/4 cup of grated cheese.

In a 9x9 baking dish, put a little sauce on the bottom of the dish and put a layer of eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, Italian cheese and sauce Add another layer of eggplant and repeat the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and sauce until everything is used up. Top with sauce and the mozzarella cheese and the remaining grated cheese.

Cover with foil and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbling, about 30 minutes at 400°. Remove foil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it sit about 10 minutes before cutting if you can wait that long.

Thanks for stopping by y'all and please come again soon.

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