Baked Eggplant Parm

Classic eggplant Parm is one of our favorites dishes in the world, but it's definitely a labor of love—making your own marinara sauce and deep-frying eggplant slices are not what our weeknight dinner dreams are made of. Enter: This slightly healthier, easier baked version. It’s got everything you love about the Italian comfort food dish, but comes together in less than half the time.

The secret is to bread and bake all your eggplant at once rather than deep frying the slices individually. They still turn soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, but are much less hands-on. We like using panko bread crumbs because they’re less heavy, but feel free to sub for Italian bread crumbs if that’s what you got (or make your own bread crumbs at home!). Your eggplant slices should only take about 35 minutes to bake, leaving you the perfect amount of time to throw together a healthy side dish to serve with your meal. Once they’re out, you’ll layer them in your baking dish just like a traditional eggplant Parm, and put it back in the oven to warm your sauce and get all that cheese nice and melty. We’ve only used mozzarella for our layers, but feel free to sprinkle in some extra Parmesan to really hammer home that cheesy flavor. We’re all about using jarred marinara here, so use whatever you like (here are our favorite top store-bought pasta sauce brands if you need some direction). And there you have it—easy eggplant Parm in just over an hour. Buon appetito!

Made this? Let us know how it went in the comments below.