Breaded Eggplant with Bruschetta
This recipe makes a great appetizer for two if your eggplant is on the smaller side, but it can easily feed four if you’re having a family dinner. The bruschetta is fresh and delicious and the breaded eggplant is great substitute for a baguette.
For the breading on the eggplant, I made homemade breadcrumbs. Homemade breadcrumbs are extremely easy to make. I used Dave’s Killer Bread since it has extra grains in it and uses whole wheat. Making breadcrumbs is also a great way to utilize the ends of the bread if you’re like me and don’t like to eat them. I used six slices of bread and broke them into pieces. I preheated the oven to 300 and baked the bread for about 20 minutes until it dried out. After it cooled in the oven, I poured the pieces into my food processor and added a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. I then blended it until it had the consistency I wanted. Viola! Healthy homemade breadcrumbs in less than an hour! I actually made these the day before and stored them in an airtight container until I was ready to use them.
Use fresh herbs for the bruschetta if you have them available, but if you’re in a pinch, dried basil and parsley work just fine. I went out to my garden and much to my disappointment, the tomatoes had overrun my basil and essentially killed it. I got called in early for work, so I did not have to time to check with my grandfather if he had any basil or parsley. Of course, he did, but I didn’t want to be late to work.
(Thanks to Ann at Fountain Avenue Kitchen for the inspiration for Crispy Baked Eggplant!)
Breaded Eggplant with Bruschetta
Ingredients
- Eggplant:
- 1 eggplant sliced in ½” pieces
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- Bruschetta:
- 2-3 to matoes diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tbsp fresh basil 1 Tbsp dried
- 1 Tbsp parsley 2 tsp dried
- ¼ cup shredded parmesan
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Whisk egg in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan.
- Dip the eggplant in the egg then coat in the breadcrumb mixture. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Flip and bake 10 minutes.
- Mix all the bruschetta ingredients.
- Top the eggplant with bruschetta and enjoy!