Celebrate Green Blog

Organic eggplant in my garden used to make this dish. If you don't have eggplant or tomatoes in a garden, hit the local farmers market for fresh, sustainable vegetables. Both eggplant and tomatoes are in abundance at the end of summer.

Last summer, I threw this dish together one night and it was a  hit. What I didn’t know was that the ingredients are basically what are used to make a dish called Eggplant Napoleon. This summer, I’ve been seeing various recipes for Eggplant Napoleon all over the place. I think my version is a little easier than most of the ones I have seen.

This can be a side dish or a main dish served with a hearty salad or even a party snack. It’s really delicious.

Ingredients

• Eggplant sliced in 3/4 inch slices
• Tomato slices – the same number of slices of eggplant that you have
• Marinated mozzarella balls, sliced in half – you can buy them marinated or marinate them several hours ahead of time using this recipe (unmarinated mozarella can be used, but I think the marinated has better flavor for this dish)
• Dry, unseasoned bread crumbs with some salt and garlic powder added – enough to coat all your eggplant
• Flour
• Eggs
• Olive oil

Directions

1. Coat eggplant in flour, then dip in eggs that have been whipped with a fork, then coat in bread crumbs. For best results, do this an hour or so before you fry them in the pan. Place them in the refrigerator so the bread crumbs get a chance to stick well.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Coat the bottom of a skillet with olive oil over medium high heat. Place breaded eggplant in the skillet and fry on one side until brown. Flip and fry on the other side until cooked through. Remove. Add more olive oil to the pan if needed and continue to fry all eggplant until finished. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet.
4. Place one tomato slice on top of each eggplant slice and top of the tomato with mozzarella – go light or heavy on the mozzarella depending on your preference.
5. Bake in oven until tomato is heated through and the mozzarella melts.

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Robin Shreeves didn’t particularly like to cook until she started paying attention to how the food she feeds her family affects the environment. Once she started experimenting with fresh, organic and local foods, her outlook on food and cooking changed dramatically. When she’s not writing the eco-friendly food blog for Mother Nature Network or attending to her two personal blogs A Little Greener Every Day and South Jersey Locavore , she can often be found in the kitchen, playing with the food that she prepares for her husband and two boys.