Eggplant in tomato cheese sauce

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 1 hr 30 mins

1. STEP 1

   

   Ingredients

2. STEP 2

   

   Let's start with the sauce. To do this, make a cross-shaped cut on each tomato and pour boiling water over them. Keep the tomatoes there for 2-3 minutes. Then drain the boiling water and plunge into cold water.

3. STEP 3

   

   Remove the skins from the tomatoes and puree them using a blender or simply chop them finely.

4. STEP 4

   

   Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan and fry the garlic until lightly fragrant. Add tomato puree and cook for 30 minutes over low heat.

5. STEP 5

   

   After 30 minutes, add chopped basil, salt, sugar and pepper to the sauce to taste. Boil for another 5 minutes and the sauce is ready.

6. STEP 6

   

   While the sauce is cooking, cut the eggplants into circles about 5 mm thick.

7. STEP 7

   

   And fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown and soft. If you wish, before frying, you can sprinkle the eggplants with salt and pepper; I have enough salt from the sauce and cheese, so I don’t salt the eggplants; you rely on your taste.

8. STEP 8

   

   When the sauce and eggplants are ready, take a baking dish. Pour the sauce onto the bottom in an even layer.

9. STEP 9

   

   Place fried eggplants on top.

10. STEP 10

    

    Sprinkle the eggplants with grated Parmesan and lay out slices of mozzarella (if you, like me, use hard mozzarella for pizza, then in this case it is better to grate it on a coarse grater).

11. STEP 11

    

    We repeat layers until the form is completely filled. The last layer will be tomato sauce and cheese, as well as crushed white crackers. Bake the eggplants in an oven preheated to 180 C for about 30 minutes.

12. STEP 12

    

    Remove the casserole from the oven and serve. Bon appetit!

Comments on the recipe

Anastasia Semenova

03.11.2023

4.9

In principle, everything is described in great detail and was apparently prepared by the author of this recipe. The only thing that raises a question is the preparation of eggplants and not the cooking method itself, but the end result of frying. After all, eggplant itself is a very hard vegetable, so they are baked before eating so that it becomes at least a little softer. And in the recipe they are actually baked at the end, but then why fry them first, creating a crust, because during baking it can play the role of a buffer.