Cheesy Baked Eggplant

Most Helpful Positive Review

Very good with a few revisions. I would recommend sweating the eggplant first for 20 minutes and then seasoning with salt and pepper as well as garlic powder. I also put half the pasta sauce on top of the eggplant and then added the 3-cheese mixture before I layered on the spinach. Then I added the rest of the sauce and the remaining cheese on top. I think it works better this way because the flavors are spread more evenly. Without seasoning the eggplant generously, you end up with bland and boring at the bottom and all the flavor and pizzazz on top.

This was delicious; and based on several other reviews, it seems to turn out great even with multiple ingredient substitutions. I made several adjustments due to lack of ingredients: 1) sprinkled eggplant with onion powder instead of garlic powder, 2) used feta cheese instead of ricotta, 4) sprinkled more mozzarella on the top as I ran out of parmasean, 5) used a whole 15 oz can of Zesty Italian spaghetti sauce instead of a plain pasta sauce & omitted the Italian seasonings. Actually, the amount of sauce required didn't seem like enough, and I was glad I decided to use the whole can. Of course, I decided to serve this dish over rotini pasta, so I needed the extra sauce or it would have been too dry. Next time, the only change I will make is to add another eggplant and possibly more spinach. These flavors were such a great combination, but I barely had enough eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. My whole family is already asking for this one again, so it's definitely going into the recipe box.

The measurements regarding the eggplant, onion and tomato are a bit open to interpretation. To make this dish, I used an eggplant that was about 8 inches tall and about 12 inches around. I left the skin on my eggplant slices for extra fiber, and also let them sweat for about 20 min before using. For anyone who's unfamiliar with sweating, you salt the slices and let them sit out for about 20-30 mins. The salt will draw out some of the bitterness inherent in eggplant. Not sure if the pre-baking of the slices in this recipe is also sweating, but I did both to be safe. You can rinse the slices after to remove almost all the salt. I had more than enough eggplant to fill the bottom of a 9x13 dish; I even had to overlap a few slices. I didn't have the spinach - somehow I overlooked that when writing the ingredients for my shopping list. I will definitely not forget for next time though. I love spinach in ricotta! I used a whole can of diced tomatoes with garlic and onions, drained. I just prefer the flavor. Did you know that canned tomatoes have more lycopene in them than fresh? Cooking brings out the lycopene in tomatoes. Anyway... I used a small red onion, chopped, which equaled probably about 1/4 cup worth, give or take. I found that the amount of cheese was just right, though I couldn't seem to spread it very well, so it was sort of crumbled on top and patted down. I did use a tad extra tomato sauce and cheese for the topping than listed in the ingredients. My f