Baked Cheesy Eggplant Casserole recipe that is easy to make. This meal will challenge your favorite Italian restaurant’s Eggplant Parmesan! This is a perfect dinner to make when you have too much eggplant growing in your garden!
Cheesy Eggplant Casserole Recipe
This Eggplant Casserole with cheese might just become one of your new favorite meals because it’s so delicious. If you’ve ended up here because you’re searching for a recipe to use up your garden eggplant – this is it! (And here’s more eggplant recipes incase you need them!)
Ingredients You Need:
- Olive Oil – for roasting and for the skillet
- Eggplant – 2 of them, the fresher the better
- Yellow Onion – chop it up
- Green Pepper – chopped, you can use a red pepper instead if you’d like
- Garlic – 3 cloves minced, you can use more if you really love garlic
- Pasta Sauce – choose a jar of your favorite kind
- Herbs – dried basil and oregano for Italian taste
- Salt and Pepper – to taste
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – You can substitute shredded cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella cheese if you’d prefer.
- Grated Parmesan Cheese – Shredded works good too.
- Fresh Tomato and Basil – these are to top the casserole when it’s finished baking. These are optional, but I 100% recommend you do it! Especially if you’re picking these from your garden!
Do you peel eggplant before cooking?
You don’t have to peel the eggplant before cooking it for this recipe. I wanted to make this dish as easy as possible to prep, so no peeling is needed. When the eggplant roasts in the oven it’s going to soften up the skin, so it won’t be tough at all.
How to Make Cheesy Eggplant Casserole
You will need 2 eggplant for this recipe. Slice them up into 1/2 inch pieces.
Roast the eggplant slices in the oven until they’re lightly browned. This will help prevent the eggplant from becoming soggy when we cook it in the casserole.
While the eggplant is cooking, let’s make the tomato sauce. You’re going to cook the onion, green pepper and garlic in a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan. Once your kitchen is smelling great, add in a jar of your favorite pasta sauce, basil, oregano and salt + pepper to taste. Continue cooking until the sauce is warm.
Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Now we’re going to start to make the layers. Add 1/2 of the eggplant slices on bottom. Now add 1/2 of the pasta sauce mixture. Now add 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese. Finally, add 1/2 of the Parmesan cheese. Now repeat those steps 1 more time.
Bake the Eggplant Casserole in the oven for 30 minutes, until it’s bubbly. Remove from the oven, and add fresh tomato slices and basil leaves on top. Serve and enjoy!
What goes well with eggplant?
Salad – Go with something Summery like Strawberry Spinach Salad or Kale Salad with cherry tomatoes.
Bread – Garlic knots or Italian Bread are the best with this meal!
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Cheesy Eggplant Casserole
PrintIngredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 eggplants cut into 1/2 inch slices, don't peel
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 1 small green pepper chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 24 oz jar of your favorite pasta sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 small tomato sliced
- fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil on the eggplant slices, making sure to coat them completely. Place the eggplant on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, making sure to flip them halfway. Remove eggplant from the oven.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion, green pepper and garlic and cook until onion is translucent and garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add pasta sauce, basil, oregano, salt and pepper into the skillet and mix until pasta sauce is warmed up. Remove from stove.
- Place 1/2 of the eggplant slices in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish that's been sprayed with nonstick spray. Add 1/2 of the pasta sauce mixture on top of the eggplant. Add 1/2 of shredded mozzarella cheese and 1/2 of Parmesan cheese. Now repeat the layers one more time.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until cheese is lightly browned and casserole is bubbly.
- Add sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves on top before serving. Enjoy!
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