"Unrolled Rollatini"

Eggplant parm has long been one of my favorite things to order at Italian restaurants.  Being a vegetarian meal allows me to be deluded into thinking it's moderately healthful.  Trying to recreate the meal at home, however, has not proven to be super successful for me.  Here was ok, here was pretty good but very time consuming.

The other day, I saw this post on Stephanie Cooks, and decided to add it to the menu IF I could find frozen eggplant cutlets.  See, I'd never heard of such a thing before.  While I definitely prefer to keep things as minimally processed as I can, sometimes necessity calls and you go with the easy way. 

This came out so good.  The cutlets were monstrous, but M commented that this meal was awesome.  He said something along the lines that I just haven't gotten the eggplant right for eggplant parm (though he did say in the second version linked above that it was really good...selective memory, I suppose.)

I loved it.  M loved it.  Baby E made a huge mess of loving it.  Mr. A seems to be going through a not eating much but waffles, fruits, and veggies, so he wouldn't touch it.  M did get him to taste the cheese, and he "didn't like it," this coming from the kid who was sneaking cheese from the cutting board while I was cooking.



Source: Stephanie Cooks Original

Ingredients:
1 pound box breaded eggplant cutlets (or homemade if you prefer)
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg white  (I used a whole egg)
1 tsp. Italian seasonings
1 tsp. garlic powder
1-1.5 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1-2 cups marinara sauce (depends how saucy you like it) (I used a jar of mushroom marinara sauce)

Directions:

1- Preheat the oven to 350. Cook the breaded eggplant cutlets according to packaging instructions and set aside.
2- In a bowl combine the ricotta, egg white, Italian seasonings, and garlic powder. Stir well.
3- Cover the bottom of an oven safe dish with marinara sauce. Add a layer of eggplant cutlets. Top with a generous layer of the ricotta mixture. Add some marinara and spread it over the eggplant. Sprinkle with parmesan and 1/2 cup of mozzarella.
4- Repeat step 3, layering eggplant/ricotta/sauce/parmesan/and mozzarella. The top layer should be just eggplant with sauce and some mozzarella.
5- Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce starts to bubble. Serve hot.