Cooking with Kurt: Eggplant Parm

This comfort food is always great for the wintertime and will last a whole week! Well… for 2 people anyways.  I’ve made this healthier but I do add a lot of cheese (low-fat) but hey, who doesn’t like cheese?!  I do make a meat sauce (lean turkey meat) but you can make this entirely vegetarian (minus the cheese = vegan).  Take a look at the cooking notes as well… just some added tips to make things a bit better.

Ingredients

4 large Eggplant
1-1.5 pounds of lean (<7% fat) ground turkey
1 large sweet onion
1 large green pepper
Oregano (dried or fresh)
Basil (dried or fresh)
Parsley (dried or fresh)
Red Pepper Flakes
Garlic (3-4 cloves)
1-1.5 pounds of fresh low-fat mozzerella cheese (the ball or brick, not the shredded)
1-1.5 pints of low-fat ricotta cheese
2 jars of pasta sauce (I use the garden veggie from Whole Foods… 35cal/serving)
Olive Oil
Penne pasta (optional)
9″ x 13″ baking pan

Cooking

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Mince your garlic and dice your onions and peppers.   Heat a large pot (enough to put your turkey, jars of sauce and veggies).  Add some olive oil to your pot, and then add your garlic and onions.  Sweat your onions a little by adding some salt to it while cooking.  Once the onions turn translucent, add your ground turkey and cook.  Once your ground turkey is cooked, add your peppers and stir to incorporate.

Next, add your 2 jars of sauce to the pot.  Add some oregano, basil, parsley, salt, fresh ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.  We will let this simmer in the back burner while we get everything else ready.

The Eggplant!  I like to slice them the long way.  It is a little difficult, but try and make the slices somewhat thick… like 1/4 inch thick.  Slice up all 4 eggplants.  We’ll pan sear each slice by gently brushing some olive oil onto each side and frying them in a pan.  Once tender, you can start to place your eggplant slices into the baking dish.

Assembly of your baking dish:  I can generally fit 4-5 slices of eggplant in 1 layer.  I then add a layer of mozzarella (sliced thin with 1-2 slices per eggplant slice) and a layer of our meat sauce.  Then comes another layer of seared eggplant, ricotta and sauce.  Repeat until you reach the top of the pan.  You don’t need a lot of sauce per layer… I found this out the hard way when everything was bubbling over into the bottom of the oven!

Once everything is assembled, place your baking dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  This will give you plenty of time to cook your pasta (if you choose to serve some).

Now, you might have a lot of eggplant, sauce and cheese left over… What I generally do is make a smaller portion in a loaf pan.  Repeat the assembly steps above and pop it in the oven.

Notes

A couple of things with this recipe.

1. It is a little time consuming, but considering all of the food you make, it is very worth while.
2. The eggplant parm actually tastes better the next day as the eggplant soaks in some of the sauce!
3. I don’t bread my eggplant since it adds extra calories that aren’t really needed.
4. Pan sear and cook your eggplant.  If you don’t, the eggplant will be tougher to eat and cut.
5. When you assemble your baking dish, you can alternate eggplant orientation so that you maximize eggplant surface area… yes, I think about these things!
6. A small slice of mozzarella goes a long way.  1 thin slice cut in half can be used per eggplant slice (4-5 slices per layer)
7. A ladle-full of sauce also goes a long way.  I can usually get by with 2-3 ladle-fulls per layer.
8. Try and end your top layer using mozzarella and sauce.  The cheese will melt nicely over everything.