I was looking for a health eggplant parmigiana recipe and found one on the New York Times blog "The Temporary Vegetarian" here, but it seemed so complicated. A few nights after, again craving some Italiany eggplant goodness, I decided to make eggplant parmigiana in the traditional manner (it's just so easy): bake eggplant slices to get them soft, bread with flour, fry in olive oil, layer in baking dish of marinara sauce and tons of (vegan) parmigiana cheese. While it was delicious I kept thinking I couldn't taste the eggplant; I mean, not at all. Nor could I taste the breading. After all, it bakes for so long that everything falls apart and all the flavors meld, and what you end up tasting is primarily cheese and sauce. So I got to thinking: I bet it would taste the same without the breading/frying and with much less cheese if I still baked it all together. So that's exactly what I did and I must say: total success! I took a lot of photos for this one throughout the cooking process so you could see how I was layering the ingredients. With no flour, just a touch of olive oil and a healthy sprinkling of cheese, you'll find this eggplant parm to be just a delicious as Luigi's, but with no guilt to inevitably follow.

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