Live Simply with Sparkle: Eggplant Parm-Parm Lasagna

Somehow...this is scary to me. It's big and purple, like Barney. "I love you. You love me. We're a happy family..." That song runs through my head as I stare at the eggplant.

It wants me to love it, but I've had some bad eggplant dishes in the past. Now it's my turn to take a stab at it and my goal is to make it yummy and to use as many things as I can from my ProFarm Produce box. This week in my box, I had 4 Roma tomatoes, garlic, Walla-Walla onions, and carrots that I will use in the recipe. Yes...carrots. I like to sneak as many veggies as I can into my meals. :0) Yep, just like you do with kids. The only difference is that I know that they're in there!

Eggplant Parm-Parm Lasagna
This recipe is adapted from
Tyler Florence's Eggplant Parmesan Eggplant Parmesan on the Food Network
and Danny Boome (Rescue Chef on Food Network) Eggplant Lasagna on the Food Network

Ingredients

1 HUGE eggplant or 2 large eggplants
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons olive oil, for caramelizing onions
1 box no-boil lasagna sheets
2 or 3 carrots thinly sliced
1 large onion diced
2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil leaves
2 (28-ounce) cans tomatoes (or 1 can and 1 jar- that's what I had on hand)
4 or 5 Roma tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
32 ounces of ricotta Cheese- (32 oz...Why? Because I love ricotta!)
3 eggs
2 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling (It's double parm!)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Slice the eggplant into 1/2 slices, then cut those slices in half. It's not so scary now! Take that! :0P

2. Preheat your oven for 400 degrees, because we need to bake this eggplant parm! Place 1/2 flour in one dish, lightly mix 2 eggs in another dish, and 1 cup of parmesan in yet another dish. Dip the eggplant slices into the flour, then the egg, and lastly the parmesan. Place the slices on a greased baking sheet. Don't forget to grease the sheet!! Bake for 25 minutes.

3. While those bake, heat the olive oil in a large skillet pan. Dice the onion and place in the covered skillet to caramelize. I add a bit of salt at this stage.

4. Once caramelized, add cans of tomatoes, sliced carrots, minced garlic, chopped basil, and diced Roma tomatoes to the skillet and cover to simmer.

5. Remove the baked eggplant from the oven and reduce the oven temp. to 350 degrees.

Oh, and try not to eat one of these right away...good luck, I couldn't! Yum!

6. In a small bowl, mix the ricotta, 1 egg, and 1 cup parmesan.

7.Now it's time to layer! Place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a lightly greased baking dish, add 3 sheets of lasagna, then a layer of ricotta mixture, then eggplant, sprinkle mozzarella, then more sauce...repeat. On the top, sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and sprinkle parmesan. I had enough to make an 8 x 8 pan and a 9 x 13 pan! :0) One for me and one to share~ bonus!