Pesto Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplant parmesan is classic vegetarian fare.
But for those long-time vegetarians out there, I’m sure you know that eggplant parm can be very….well, gross, if not made properly. I’ve been to many, many weddings where mushy, oily eggplant parm was my only option. I thought I hated eggplant for literally years, because of these repeated negative experiences. But a little while back I decided to try it a different way, following a recipe to dry the eggplant out and bake it rather than fry. I now love eggplant!
Now don’t get me wrong, a regular, classic eggplant parm is delicious, but to me, pesto steps everything up a notch. I am known for pulling out a bunch of basil, sniffing it repeatedly and making audible noises. I may be in the minority here, but I will choose pesto over a tomato-based sauce almost any day of the week (don’t yell at me), so I decided to give this a shot. I was not disappointed. The pesto brings a light herbiness to the dish that I think compliments the eggplant very well, plus it gives me an excuse to make and eat pesto… can you tell I love pesto?
This recipe requires you to salt your eggplant and let it sit for a while before you do anything with it! This is going to draw out the moisture and make it so you don’t get mushy eggplant. After you do this, you can bread the eggplant. I use almond flour, instead of regular flour, to keep this lighter and gluten free, plus, I can’t taste the difference, but if you want to use regular flour or a different gf flour, go right ahead! Then it gets dipped into beaten eggs and into bread crumbs and spices mixture, , which, if you want this to be gluten free, obviously you will need to make or buy gf breadcrumbs and it gets baked in a 350 degree oven.
You can make your pesto while this is baking. After you bake the eggplant, top with the pesto and cheese of choice, I used Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggio cheese blend, but i’ll leave that up to you. I baked until the cheese was browning and bubbly, then I served with Trader Joe’s Red Lentil Sedanini (also with pesto) to keep this gluten free and lighter.
I hope you pesto-lovers out there enjoy this recipe and even if you don’t want to use pesto, you can still follow the rest of the recipe for the eggplant parm. Shove this deliciousness in your face hole and enjoy!
Pesto Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients:
- 1 medium eggplant peeled and sliced
- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tbsp rosemary
- salt to taste
- 1 cup parmesan or Italian cheese blend
- 1 bunch basil
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1/8 cup parmesan cheese grated
- salt to taste
Instructions:
- Peel and slice your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds. Lay them in a single layer on a clean dish towel. Layer with lots of salt. You can wash this off later if you're worried about sodium, but do NOT skip this step! This is what is going to dry out your eggplant and make it not watery and mushy. Let this sit for about 30-45 minutes.
- After 30-45 minutes, pat all the excess water off your eggplant with another clean kitchen towel. If you're concerned about sodium, at this point you can rinse off your eggplant slices and pat them dry again.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In 3 shallow plates, add breadcrumbs + all the listed spices to one, beaten eggs to another and almond flour to another. Dip each of the eggplant slices in each of the plates in the following order: almond flour, egg, breadcrumbs + spices. Repeat until each slice is covered, placing them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, checking as you go. Each oven is different and depending on the size of your slices this can change.
- While they are baking, you can make your pesto sauce. Take out a food processor. Add all the ingredients for your pesto into the food processor, process slowly and voila! Start with 1/4 cup of olive oil and add more as you go if it is too chunky for your taste. This is totally up to you.
- Once you eggplant is done, add a dollop of pesto to each slice and top with cheese. Turn your oven to broil and put the eggplant back in until the cheese is slightly brown and bubbly. There will be extra pesto, use this for serving!
- Serve over top your favorite pasta (I used Trader Joe's Red Lentil Sedanini but this part is totally up to you) and use the rest of the pesto as a sauce. This would also be really good in a hero with some sliced tomato.
- Enjoy!
