Eggplant Parmesan

Luke requested a special lunch on Father's Day and this is what he wanted.  The picture is pretty terrible, but I had to use the Iphone because all 3 of us were hungry and didn't want to wait until the regular camera could be found.  This isn't much of a recipe, but it's one of our favorites.  The first time I had this dish was at Luke's house when we were in high school and then we made it pretty often in college.  It's funny how when you first start making a dish it takes a long time and seems really complicated - it is actually easy and pretty quick!  Enough chatter, here is the recipe.

Eggplant Parmesan
Serves 4 (at least)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized eggplant, sliced into 1/4" slices 
• Oil for frying (I used canola but you can use veggie)
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 cup flour (seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and italian seasoning)
• Shredded parmesan cheese
• Creamy tomato sauce (see below)
• 1 package cooked spaghetti or angel hair pasta

Directions:

• Fill a skillet with enough oil to cover the bottom.
• Soak the slices of eggplant in a bowl of lightly salted water.  This sounds weird but it really did taste even better after I did this.  I only soaked mine for 10 minutes, then laid the eggplant on paper towels to dry.
• Fill one pie pan with whisked eggs and one pie pan with seasoned flour (using the salt, pepper, garlic, & italian seasoning to taste).
• Dredge eggplant slices in eggs, then in flour mixture.
• Fry over medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side...until they are nice and brown.
• Serve on top of spaghetti noodles.  I layered the eggplant slices like a lasagna - eggplant, creamy tomato sauce, parmesan cheese - I did this with 3 pieces of eggplant and topped again with parmesan cheese.

To make the creamy tomato sauce, I emptied two cans of tomato sauce into the saucepan.  I used a little salt, pepper, garlic, italian seasoning and heated through.  Once it's nice and hot, add heavy whipping cream - I used probably about 1/3 cup of cream.  You can use however much you want - it really makes a difference and is especially delicious with eggplant.