Eggplant Parmesan

My usual recipe for eggplant parmesan involves slicing, sweating, breading then frying a LOT of slices of eggplant, layering them with cheese and tomato sauce, more cheese, and baking the omg nummy cheesiness until hot and bubbly. It's time consuming, mostly me standing at the stove frying the eggplant slices, and it's super high calorie. But did I mention nummy? Oh yes. Today, though, I'm going to try to save some calories (mostly from the frying) by following Chef John's lighter version.

And here it is.

Other than the frying, it's just as labor intensive I think and took nearly an hour to slice, shred, fold and all that jazz before heading to the oven. I did salt and sweat the slices, contrary to the recipe, because I think they are a good deal less bitter. I'm also wondering if I should have added some mozzarella anyway, perhaps sliced on top just below the breading, because it wasn't as cheesy-gooey as my usual recipe for Eggplant Parmesan (pretty much followed verbatim from my friend Doug) which is OMG amazing.

This stuff was good, but not OMG amazing. But, then again, it's also about half the calories. ;)