A few weeks ago I made an eggplant parmesan the boyfriend loved, so when I got more eggplants in my organic basket last week, I knew what I had to make for my “How I met your mother” series finale dinner.

It is a delicious dish, but it takes a while to prep. At least I can make it over the weekend, and then just bake it the day of.

The first step of the whole process is to peel, slice, and salt the eggplants. Then you have to leave them in a colander to bleed for an hour. Apparently this will take the bitter taste away. Then you wash the slices so they are not so salty and pat them dry with paper towels. Since I don’t have much patience, I only bled them for 20 minutes and quickly dried them with a towel after washing off the salt. They turned out just fine! Next time I’ll also try to skip the eggs and breadcrumbs process since I’m baking and not frying them.

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

2 large eggplants – peeled, sliced, bled, dried

4 tomatoes – chopped

4 cups pasta sauce (1 1/2 jars)

3 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tbsp salt

3 eggs – beaten

3 cups breadcrumbs

3 cups mozzarella and parmesan cheese – mixed

Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat eggplant slices with beaten egg, then bread with breadcrumbs. Place eggplant slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake 15 minutes, flip and bake another 15 minutes.

Increase oven temperature to 475°F. Mix pasta sauce, tomatoes, and rosemary. In an ovenproof dish, layer pasta sauce, then eggplant, and top with cheeses. Repeat, finishing with cheese. Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden in spots, about 30 minutes.

Makes 8 servings of 360 calories each

Eggplant Parmesan