Italian Eggplant Parmesan

"The trouble with eating Italian food is that, 5 or 6 days later, you're hungry again." - George Miller, British Writer

My blog posting is going to be a bit unscheduled and random these next two weeks, but will hopefully return to normal towards the end of the month.

Eggplant Parmesan is one of my favorite Italian foods - I grew up in a heavily Italian/Mediterranean area, and have developed an intense love of this particular cuisine.

Recipe:

• 1 Eggplant, peeled, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
• Flour
• Oil
• Milk
• Seasoned Salt
• 1 lb. Spaghetti Sauce
• 1/2 lb. hamburger
• 1/4 cup grape jelly
• 1 14-oz. can stewed, sliced tomatoes
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• Crumbled Parmesan cheese

 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Moisten eggplant with milk and coat lightly in flour mixed with a little seasoned salt. Brown slices in oil on both sides, until tender when pierced with a fork, and transfer to jelly-roll pan lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with foil and bake in oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Use about 8 to 16 slices for this amount of sauce.
2. Brown the hamburger in a skillet. In a saucepan, combine the sauce, jelly and tomatoes, breaking tomatoes up with a fork. Add the browned hamburger. Heat on medium heat until hot, but not bubbling, making sure the jelly is melted.
3. You can either make regular eggplant Parmesans, or "stackers" - for the former, using only 8 eggplant slices, place a good sized helping of mozzarella on the eggplant slice and top with just enough sauce to cover the whole thing, but not overflow.
For the "stackers," using 16 eggplant slices, place the mozzarella on the first slice, top with a second slice, and ladle enough sauce on top to cover the whole thing without overflowing too much.
Leave the assembled eggplants on the jelly-roll pan, and place back in the hot oven for about 3 minutes or so to melt the cheese. Serve promptly, garnish with Parmesan cheese and serve with pasta on the side, if desired.
Enjoy!