Kids Dish

I found my green bean recipe after a quick search last night. It was between two- Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots and Haricots Verts with Herb Butter. The herb butter recipe only had one review, and though it was glowingly positive and I’m making herb butter anyway I decided to go with the shallot recipe for a few reasons: It sounds delicious, It can be completely made ahead of time and reheated before serving, and the reviews were all positive.

I’m kind of low on shallots since I have more than 2 pounds of green beans to cook and they’re the regular kind which aren’t as tender. (I’m bummed I used all of the haricots verts from my garden during the summer, but I didn’t really grow enough to save any. Note for next year: either skip the green beans or plant 3 times as many) And I’m going to use fresh thyme from my garden. Reviewers suggest cutting the butter/oil a bit so even though I’m going to use more beans than the recipe calls for I’ll try it with the original amount of butter and oil and add more if necessary.

Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots
Bon Appétit | December 2006

2 pounds haricots verts or slender green beans, trimmed
1 pound medium shallots
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Cook haricots verts in boiling salted water until tender, about 4 minutes (or 6 minutes if using green beans). Drain. Transfer to bowl of ice water to cool. Drain well. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in several layers of paper towels. Seal in plastic bag and chill.

Cut off and discard ends from shallots. Cut shallots lengthwise in half, then remove peel with paring knife. Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low; sauté until shallots are browned and tender, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover loosely with foil and let stand at room temperature.

Add haricots verts to shallots in skillet and stir over medium-high heat until heated through, about 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

Cut off and discard ends from shallots. Cut shallots lengthwise in half, then remove peel with paring knife. Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium-low; sauté until shallots are browned and tender, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover loosely with foil and let stand at room temperature.

Add haricots verts to shallots in skillet and stir over medium-high heat until heated through, about 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Epicurious.com is the best place for me to find new recipes. (Allrecipes is great too, but the recipes on Epicurious are just a bit more gourmet, and when I’m hosting ten for dinner, I’d rather err on the side of classy.) Aside from the fantastic search function, where you can search by course, by ingredient, and even by kid-friendliness, you can sort by user reviews. I only ever bother with recipes that have been reviewed multiple times and have high ratings. In many reviews the reviewers post modifications they’ve made and some of the modifications become the standard- in some cases almost all of the reviewers follow the advice of one person and rave about the recipe.

Today’s search was for sweet potatoes. I make sweet potatoes pretty regularly and have cooked them a variety of ways but never for Thanksgiving. The last two years my mother-in-law has made and brought them to my house, but this year I’ve got a good 6lbs of sweet potatoes left from my CSA and I’ve got to use them. Rather than reinvent the wheel (new, interesting recipes got me nowhere last year) I’m going for tradition. I know I don’t want anything with marshmallows on top (yuck!) and I know I don’t want pureed or mashed because my aunt’s bringing mashed potatoes. (I wish I was making the mashed- I have a ton of potatoes from the CSA and I make phenomenal roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Another time.) After browsing by rating for a while I came across two contenders.

Maple-Glazed Yams with Pecan Topping and Candied Sweet Potatoes. After reading the reviews, Candied Sweet Potatoes was the clear winner. I’ll make them a day in advance and reheat them while the turkey rests.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Simmer brown sugar, butter, water, and salt, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and syrup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in bourbon to taste. Drizzle syrup over potatoes and bake in middle of oven, basting occasionally, until syrup is thickened, about 1 1/4 hours.

I’m still planning some Thanksgiving recipes. At an outing to Costco to stock up on paper goods (I only buy food there if we’re having a huge party) I ended up buying a 10 lb bag of organic baby carrots. It was a silly purchase, considering I needed 2 carrots for a specific recipe and didn’t feel like stopping at another store to buy a smaller amount, but since I’m having 10 people for dinner on Thursday, so I’m sure I’ll be able to cook through most of the 10 lbs of carrots then.

The question is what to cook? Some people don’t like the texture of cooked carrots and some people don’t like the sweet. I usually make an awesome roasted carrot soup when I find myself overloaded with carrots, but since I’m making the Butternut Squash soup (which only calls for about a cup of carrots) I’m out of luck with that. What I need is a recipe that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the carrot crunch and isn’t overly sweet at the same time. Curried carrots are out, because the apricot glaze is a little much. Balsamic glazed carrots will probably be better. The acidity of the vinegar balances the sugar nicely and they’re not cooked for so long that they get soggy. The last time I made them Sam couldn’t get enough. Let’s hope he still likes them.

Carrots Glazed with Balsamic Vinegar
recipe and photo from epicurious.com

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 1/2 pounds peeled baby carrots or regular carrots, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces, halved lengthwise
6 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add carrots and sauté 5 minutes. Cover and cook until carrots are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Stir in sugar and vinegar. Cook uncovered until carrots are tender and glazed, stirring frequently, about 12 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add chives and toss to blend. Transfer to bowl and serve.

This recipe can be made in advance and reheated just before serving if necessary. But it’s also quick enough that you can cook the carrots while the turkey rests which is my plan.

This is a hearty winter soup that’s fairly quick to make and has room for endless variations. Most importantly, the toddler will eat it. When I’m pressed for time I make the recipe as written. The rest of the time I’ll add other veggies and herbs or bacon to jazz it up. Here’s the basic recipe using veggies from my CSA. I’ll add some variations at the end.

Potato Soup

In a large heavy saucepan cook the leeks in the butter with salt and pepper to taste, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are softened but not browned. Add the broth and the potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Use an immersion blender to blend a portion or all of the soup depending on your preference. Mix in the herbs and add salt and pepper to taste.

Variations:
If you like bacon in your soup, fry five or six strips of bacon in the large heavy saucepan. Drain the bacon on a paper towel lined plate reserving one tablespoon of bacon grease. Add the leeks to the bacon grease and cook for two minutes. Add the butter and cook until softened, 6 or 8 minutes more. Follow the recipe as written then crumble the bacon on top of each bowl of soup. Rosemary works especially well with the bacon.

Like your soup creamy? Add ½ teaspoon of nutmeg and a cup of yogurt, sour cream or heavy cream to the soup just before serving. Use chives instead of the other herbs. If you’re feeling especially daring, serve the soup chilled and call it Vichyssoise.

Feel like it’s just not soup without onion or garlic? Chop a small onion and mince a few cloves of garlic and sauté them with the leeks.

Acorn squash is a vegetable I didn’t discover until college. My boyfriend’s parents lived in town and we’d often go there for dinner. His parents used to call me Twiggy and try to fatten me up with all of their favorite foods. Almost all of their vegetables came from their large garden. Most everything was cooked in insane amounts of butter until mushy and practically unrecognizable, but the acorn squash was something extra butter just improves and it helps that it’s pretty hard to overcook it.

Generally I serve acorn squash as is, in the shell. I cut it in half through the stem end with a strong knife, scoop the seeds and bake for about an hour in a 400 degree oven. Usually during the last few minutes of cooking I’ll add a pat of butter and either a sweet or savory seasoning to each half. For savory I like butter and rosemary. For sweet I like either brown sugar or maple syrup. Either way, you can’t go wrong. Acorn squash is delicious and kid friendly.

Searching for more acorn squash recipes I came across a recipe that calls for tossing the roasted squash with a Chile Vinaigrette. The tangy citrus juices and heat from the chile peppers offset the sweetness of the acorn squash beautifully.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Chile Vinaigrette
Gourmet, October 2006

2 (1 1/2 - to 1 3/4-lb) acorn squash
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons olive oil (or less to taste)
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot red chile, including seeds (you can substitute sriracha)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 450°F. Halve squash lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends. Scoop out seeds and cut squash lengthwise into 3/4-inch-wide wedges. Toss squash with black pepper, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons oil in a bowl, then arrange, cut sides down, in 2 large shallow baking pans. Roast squash, switching position of pans halfway through roasting, until squash is tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, 25 to 35 minutes.

While squash roasts, mince garlic and mash to a paste with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer paste to a small bowl and whisk in lime juice, chile (to taste), cilantro, and remaining 1/4 cup oil until combined. Transfer squash, browned sides up, to a platter and drizzle with vinaigrette.

My dad came over for dinner tonight and eager to please i decided to make him one of his favorite meals, chicken, broccoli and penne. Only I didn’t have any penne so I had to use some weird vegetable spirals I picked up at Trader Joe’s when they were out of the whole wheat spirals I usually get, and I wanted to add a bunch of swiss chard that’s been sitting in the crisper waiting to be cooked and eaten and some tomato, since I still have pounds of tomatoes from my garden and the CSA. I browsed online for a while looking for recipes but couldn’t really find any I liked. So I decided to wing it. I mean it’s pasta. How hard could it be?

I grated about two cups of Parmesan while I waited for the pasta water to boil. Since I’m way too cheap to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts I boned and skinned the whole breast I’d defrosted and cut it into one- inch cubes. Then I heated two tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven, seasoned the chicken and cooked it through, turning it to brown on all sides. While the chicken cooked, I thinly sliced half an onion and minced two cloves of garlic. I removed the cooked chicken to a plate and added the onion to the dutch oven, cooking it until soft, about five minutes. I added the garlic and stirred it for a few seconds then added about two cups of milk, 1.5 cups of Parmesan, and a cup of shredded Mozzarella.

Here’s where things started to go wrong. My dad showed up. I’d completely forgotten about the broccoli and had to cut it into bite-sized pieces and steam it for a few minutes. I got that under control, finished cooking the pasta, and stirred the sauce until it thickened. I added the cooked pasta, chicken, a handful of basil from my garden, and broccoli to the dutch oven with the sauce, sprayed a 9×13 baking pan with olive oil and poured the pasta and sauce into the pan. I topped the pasta with the rest of the grated Parmesan and a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs for crunch and baked the whole thing for about 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

It was only after the whole thing was in the oven that I realized I’d totally forgotten about the Swiss Chard, tomatoes, and any type of seasoning whatsoever. I thought it was totally bland. Bob admitted it needed more seasoning. My dad said it was very good, but he did leave a sizeable portion behind. Sam, however, loved it. He ate two bowls full along with some whole-wheat sourdough bread spread with pesto. Bland as it was, I’m sure it was better than squash macaroni and cheese.

Next time I make something like that I’ll add plenty of freshly ground black pepper, a bit of salt, and nutmeg to the sauce.

I know I just posted a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan last month, but I made it again the other night and now I’ve got a picture to go with it so I thought I’d refresh your memory and urge you to make it again. Seriously, this is the best recipe I’ve ever made and I’ve Eggplant Parmesan dozens of times.

When I made it I had a few eggplant rounds that didn’t fit into the pan. I decided to leave them out and serve them plain for Sam because he’s rejected eggplant several times now and I thought that perhaps he’d give them a shot if he ate them crispy and breaded. In retrospect that idea was foolish. Sam’s never eaten anything crispy and breaded, not even chicken fingers, which I’ve heard are every child’s favorite meal after chicken nuggets. Anyway, I gave him the eggplant and some sauce in which to dip it, because everyone knows kids love to dip, and he took a bite and shook his head no.

When given a bite of my Eggplant Parmesan he eyed it warily, took a bite, made a face, chewed swallowed and signed and said more. He ate half of mine, half of Bob’s then half of Bob’s second portion.

This time I had about 1000 fresh tomatoes, and didn’t feel like making a proper sauce. Instead I used Lidia’s Marinara recipe, which is quick, easy and delicious. The Eggplant Parmesan calls for the sauce to be pureed smooth, so I gave it a spin in the blender and it nearly exploded all over my kitchen. When a recipe tells you to wait for something to cool before pureeing you should listen. Aside from that near catastrophe, it worked well in the recipe.

Here’s Lidia’s Marinara recipe to go with the Eggplant Parmesan.

Marinara

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled
3 pounds ripe fresh plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded, or one 35 ounce can Italian plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano), seeded and lightly crushed, with their liquid
Salt
Crushed red pepper
10 fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

Procedure
1. Heat the oil in a 2- to 3-quart nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Whack the garlic with the flat side of a knife, add it to the oil, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
2. Carefully slide tomatoes and their liquid into the oil. Bring to a boil, and season lightly with salt and crushed red pepper. Lower the heat so sauce is at a lively simmer, and cook, breaking up tomatoes with a whisk or spoon, until sauce is chunky and thick, about 20 minutes.
3. Stir in the basil about 5 minutes before sauce is finished. Taste sauce, and season with salt and red pepper if necessary.

The Vegetarian Blog Carnival is back at Veggie Chic with a number of globally inspired meat free recipes and tips for healthy eating.

Curry in Kadai has some recipes for Indian flatbreads that look like they’re fairly easy to make. Eggs Vindaloo posted over at Lisa’s Kitchen doesn’t stand a chance with my picky eater, Since he won’t eat eggs, no matter how well they’re disguised. Aside from the eggs, the rest of the recipe actually seems like it could go over well. He seems to like most curries, so maybe I could sub in some tofu or veggies?

Adventures in daily living contributes a hummus recipe. Hummus, yummus yummus or not, is hit or miss with the little one these days. He likes to dip, but can’t quite decide if he likes hummus unless it’s someone else’s. Disease Proof has a couple of internationally flavored veggie dishes, including a curry, a stirfry and a salad. The Expat Chef offers a recipe for spinach sautéed in butter and parmesan. My CSA still doesn’t have any spinach, but I may have to give this a shot with chard.

For dessert, there’s a Civil War Fruit cake from Stop the Ride and my recipe for the more cake than cookie-like Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.

In the non-recipe realm there are some facts about cherries in a post called Cheers to Cherries, the 5 Greatest Foods for your Health from We the Change, info about the new Wellness channel on the Dish network at Satellite TV Guru, a piece about why it’s better to drink your veggies, and a post about the mango, one of my son’s favorite fruits. He’ll eat two whole mangoes if I let him.

I’ll be hosting the next edition of the Vegetarian Blog Carnival here at Kids Dish, so please submit your vegetarian posts to the carnival submission page.

According to Cook’s Thesaurus, Americans refer to a sweet, moist variety of sweet potato as yams. Yams have orange flesh and are sweeter than their white-fleshed cousins. Yams are quite versatile, and though you may be used them candied and (yuck!) served with marshmallows for Thanksgiving dinner, I prefer them savory or spicy. If I bake them I like them with butter or salt. When I make oven fries with them I like to add chili powder and cumin. When roasted I like them with olive oil, garlic and ginger.

Then my friend Nicole suggested making sweet potato burritos with roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, Monterey Jack cheese, spinach, sour cream and brown rice. The first night I had the ingredients on hand to try it I had a number of people coming over for dinner. I’d watched an episode of Good Deal with David Lieberman that called for making enchiladas casserole style, layering charred tortillas with sauce and filling and baking it so I figured I’d give that a shot. The result was fantastic. It’s so good it’s become one of my classic, can’t think of anything else to make so I’ll make something that pleases everybody dinners.

Veggie Enchilada Bake

This week’s Vegetarian Carnival, the first of fall, featured a number of different soup recipe. The first soup from Lisa’s Vegetarian Kitchen is a beautiful looking orange and beet soup. I may have to make a pot with the beets hiding in the bottom of the crisper drawer. Adventures in Daily Living offers a cream of tomato soup just calling out for a grilled cheese on rye. Joel Fuhrman of Body for Life fame dishes up some superior seasonal servings from his Disease Proof website. I’m not sure about mixing vanilla extract and soymilk with broccoli, zucchini and spinach, but the Summer Fresh Tomato Avocado Soup sounds pretty good to me.

Other recipes include Frugal Journey’s five easy whole grainvegetarian sandwiches like a Cheese Italian Sub and , lentil tacos made with rice flour tortillas from Country Kitchen Pantry. Veggie Way presents a recipe for red Camargue rice with veggies and my recipe for Spaghetti Surprise is available here at Kids Dish.

In the non-recipe sphere, there’s Elaine Vigneault’s post about NYC’s Zen Palate, a vegetarian restaurant my non-vegetarian dad, cousin and I all enjoyed. There’s a post about a woman’sfirst experience with tofu.The New Vegan writes about being vegan in the social sphere and someone writes a bizarre confession about the vegetarian that isn’t.

Aims of Life offers tips for eating a balanced vegetarian diet. Wisdom from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket writes about acidic blood. The Healthy Living Lounge designs your own health and well being affirmation.

The rest of the Carnival posts are linked at Veggie Chic. Be sure to submit your entry for the next vegetarian carnival in two weeks. All submissions can be made using the carnival submission form at the blog carnival website.

Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Delicata, Hubbard, Kabocha and fall’s ubiquitous pumpkin are just a few varieties of squashes harvested in late summer and fall. Winter Squashes store well in cool basements for months if they are checked regularly for soft spots or mold.

Unlike summer squash, winter squashes tend to have thick, hard skins so I find it’s easiest to bake first and cut later for the larger varieties like butternut or cut in half and bake in the shell for smaller varieties like acorn. Most squashes are sweet when cooked, making them popular with kids. They’re high in Vitamins A and C, high in potassium and fiber.

To cook most squashes, bake them in a 375 degree oven until the skin is easily pierced with a fork. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and either serve in the shell or scoop out the flesh and mash or puree. Other squashes are delicious cubed in soups or stews. For these cut first, scoop the seeds, bake for about 20 minutes and peel and cube when the flesh is cool enough to handle.

The flesh of squash when pureed can be baked into breads or muffins for an extra vitamin boost. This time of year pumpkin finds its way into many baked goods like my favorite pumpkin cheese muffins. This recipe calls for canned pumpkin, but if you have access to small, sweet cooking pumpkins, not the large jack-o-lantern types which tend to be tasteless, you can puree the cooked flesh and use the equivalent amount in the muffins.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (low fat is fine. Non fat is not)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar

4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped pecans

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin ( I usually add more)
1/3 cup olive oil or applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.

To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.

For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.

Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.

Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

winter squash, muffin recipe, pumpkin cheese muffin recipe

The surprise is not so much that it’s spaghetti squash, not just spaghetti, is that Sam ate it and he liked it. He took his fork and his bowl and dug in, occasionally asking me to put some on the fork for him. It was only after he’d eaten more than half of the contents of the bowl that he asked for “gee been” and pointed to the green bean containing lunch bag we’d brought to his cousin’s house today.

So with that success in mind I bring you my recipe for Spaghetti Surprise

1 medium spaghetti squash pierced several times with a fork
3 tablespoons of garlic butter (recipe follows)
1/2 cup of chopped parsley
1/2 cup (or more) cheese of your choice- I used a mixture of Monterey Jack and Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Bake the squash on a baking sheet for an hour. Meanwhile, shred and chop the cheese and parsley. Remove the squash. When it’s cool enough to handle cut it lengthwise down the middle. Using a fork scrape away the flesh from the skin. It will separate into spaghetti like strands. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, reheat if necessary and serve.

For the garlic butter I used a few cloves of garlic I’d previously roasted and combined them in a food processor with unsalted butter. To roast garlic, cut off the tops of a head, drizzle it in olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350. When the garlic is cool enough to handle you can just squeeze the garlic right out of the cloves. Roasting garlic mellows it and removes any bitterness.

If you don’t want to roast the garlic you can toast a few unpeeled cloves in a pan heated to medium for about 10 minutes until it’s black and spotty on all sides. When it’s cool enough to handle, peel and combine with the butter in a food processor or with a fork.

recipes, spaghetti squash, surprise! my picky eater ate it

The latest edition of the blog carnival was posted at Activist Mommy and some of my favorite food blogs are represented.

Sally’s recipe for Gazpacho is up and Jennie’s recipe for quesadillas with squash blossoms and tomatillos looks delicious. I submitted my T is for Tomato post.

The next carnival is scheduled September 24th.

I love eggplant but I hate pan frying the rounds. Oven frying them is far superior, leaves the eggplant crisp, even after baking, and probably saves you some fat and calories without sacrificing flavor at all.

This recipe takes about 2 and half hours total, but most of that time is hands off including 40 minutes to salt and drain the eggplant slices and 45 minutes baking time. It’s worth the effort. I usually drain the eggplant overnight in the fridge, though I don’t know if my method is recommended. I also make double the eggplant and freeze half for later.

Eggplant Parmesan
2 globe eggplants sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
salt
1 cup flour
pepper
4 large eggs
4 cups plain dried breadcrumbs (I like using Panko crumbs because they’re light and crisp)
3 oz Parmesan cheese grated (the finished product is a 1000 times better if you use fresh, not the junk in a can)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups mozzarella
fresh basil leaves, torn

Toss the eggplant with 1 teaspoon of salt and let drain for 40 minutes. I take Lidia’s advice, and line the eggplant up the sides of the colander, place a heavy bowl over the eggplant, and weigh it down with a couple of cans of tomatoes.

Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions, put a baking sheet on each rack and preheat the oven to 425. Combine the flour and 1 teaspoon of pepper in a large ziploc bag and shake to combine. Beat the eggs into a shallow dish. Combine the bread crumbs, 1 cup of Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in another shallow dish.

Rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat dry with paper towels. When the eggplant is thoroughly dried, place a handful of slices in the ziploc bag and shake to cover with flour. Shake off excess flour, dip in the egg, then coat with breadcrumbs and let drain on a wire rack. Work in batches until all of the eggplant has been dredged in flour and breaded.

Remove the preheated baking sheets from the oven. Spread 3 tablespoons of oil over each sheet, tilting the sheet to coat evenly. Spread the breaded eggplant in a single layer over the hot sheets. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the first side is brown and crisp. Flip the slices over and return to the oven until the second side is browned, about 10 minutes more.

Spread a cup of the sauce over the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. Put half of the eggplant over the sauce, overlapping. Cover the eggplant with a cup of sauce, a few torn basil leaves, and half of the mozzarella. Layer the remaining eggplant in the dish and dot with a cup of sauce leaving most of the eggplant exposed so it stays crisp. Sprinkle with 1/4 of Parmesan and the remaining Mozzarella.

Place the dish on the bottom oven rack and bake for about 15 minutes until the cheese is brown and bubbly. Remove from oven, top with the remaining basil leaves and let sit for 10 minutes. Pass the rest of the sauce and Parmesan around when you serve.