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Deep Dish Eggplant Parm Recipe

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As you can imagine, being a producer in a live TV studio has it’s challenges. It also comes with some unforeseen benefits, though, especially when that live TV studio happens to be QVC. For example, I find myself offering up suggestions for accessories my wife could pair with her outfit – and she actually listens! I’ve also been able to pick up some tips, tricks, and recipes from our awesome food stylist team as well as our very own David Venable. There’s just something about being in the kitchen and having total control over creating a meal from scratch that gets the juices flowing – excuse my pun!

Well, anyway, my style in the kitchen is that I like to start with a recipe, but I don’t always follow the recipe. I know I know, who really follows a recipe word for word. I consider a recipe a suggested list of ingredients and a general outline of how to prepare it. From there, it’s up to me to me to add my own flavors – another pun. That being said, here is my suggested ingredients and basic outline of how to prepare a classic, very scalable crowd pleaser – Deep Dish Eggplant Parm!!

Deep Dish Eggplant Parm

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants (skin removed, sliced)

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Jar of marinara sauce

12 oz. sliced mozzarella

Grated Parmesan cheese

Panko bread crumbs

Serves: 4 | Hands-On Time: 30 mins | Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and season both sides with salt and pepper.

Place the seasoned eggplant slices on a rimmed baking sheet (I don’t spray the sheet with Pam).

Bake for 12 minutes, remove the baking sheet, flip over the slices, bake for 12 more minutes.

Layer a small baking dish with marinara sauce, eggplant, sliced mozzarella, grated Parmesan cheese, and the panko bread crumbs.

*Experiment with the order of your layers – I like to stack it high. I usually go sauce, eggplant, sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, sauce, bread crumbs, and repeat.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 400 degrees.