Eggplant Parmesan

What is cheesy, fried and delicious? Eggplant Parmesan!
Friday night we undertook our next food challenge and it was great!
Matt was stuck in Friday evening traffic (why is it always slowest when I want him home the fastest?) and so I measured out the spices and started the sauce, when he got home we prepared the eggplant together. We looked in a couple different cookbooks, but The Joy of Cooking only called for 1 eggplant so it won out. Joy also calls for homemade tomato sauce, I did the semi-homemade version by adding a few fresh tomatoes and my own spice blend to a large can of crushed 'Italian' style tomatoes. You could easily make your own version or use a pre-made bottle and it would turn out great.

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
3 eggs
olive oil (keep on hand)
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 teaspoons chopped parsley

First you must fry the eggplant - (but you can preheat the oven to 425 now)
1. peel and cut eggplant into 1/2 inch slices
2. let them stand for a while - eggplants are moist and need to drain - I let mine sit for about 1 hour while waiting for Matt to come home, but it would probably depend on your eggplant.
3. whisk together eggs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil
4. Dredge eggplant slices in flour, then egg mixture then bread crumbs
5. The recipe says to let the eggplant sit on a rack for 30 minutes, but we skipped that step since we let it sit before.
6. fry the eggplant slices in 1/4 cup olive oil over medium-high heat. It should take ~4-5 minutes per side - they should be golden brown.
We had to do this in batches since not all of the eggplant could fit in the pan at once.

After you have fried the eggplant, you bake it!
1.Cover the bottom of a baking sheet with a layer of your sauce
2. place the fried eggplant in a single layer over the sauce, try not to overlap
3. add another layer of sauce over the eggplant (total sauce volume was a small saucepan's worth)
4. sprinkle the oregano and pepper over the sauce
5. combine the cheeses together and put over the eggplant (mmmmmmmmm)
6. cover everything with parsley
7. cook for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

we served ours over angel hair pasta, with garlic bread and salad. We drank Pellegrino to feel special.