Grandma's Baked Eggplant Parmesan

My grandmother's easy Baked Eggplant Parmesan recipe is a delicious vegetarian dinner with just 15 minutes of prep! This recipe simplifies the classic Italian dish for a quick-prep, family-friendly weeknight meal. Serve it with a side of spaghetti, a simple green salad, and a basket of garlic bread.

How to Make Baked Eggplant Parmesan | 1-Minute Video

Certain recipes just taste like home, and this simple eggplant parmesan is definitely one of those dinners. It's an instant transport back to my childhood table. When my aunt recently passed along my grandmother's old recipe box, I spent hours pouring over all of her recipes. One that instantly jumped out at me was the handwritten Baked Eggplant Parmesan recipe on a weathered piece of yellow legal paper. It's a dish that I grew up on, and I've continued to serve the flavorful meal to my own family as well!

What is Eggplant Parmesan?

Eggplant Parmesan is a traditional Italian meal comprised of shallow- or deep-fried slices of eggplant, layered with cheese and tomato sauce, and then baked in the oven. Called parmigiana, parmigiana di melanzane, or melanzane alla parmigiana in Italian, the dish is thought to have originated in the Southern regions of Campania and Sicily.

You might be familiar with other variations that include veal or chicken (like our favorite Chicken Parm). Either way, the popular dinner has been adapted over generations, and Americanized by families like ours. This particular quick and easy eggplant parmesan recipe is a meal that busy moms can prepare without too much fuss. Instead of frying the eggplant in a skillet, we let the oven do the work. It's baked -- not fried -- but you don't lose any of that delicious flavor!

Preparing the Eggplant for Eggplant Parm

To peel, or not to peel? To salt, or not to salt? Before you get started, let's discuss the best way to prepare the eggplant for this dish. First, when shopping for an eggplant, look for a vegetable with smooth, shiny skin that's uniform in color and heavy for its size. To test for ripeness, lightly press a finger against the skin. If it leaves an imprint, the eggplant is ripe. Smaller eggplants tend to be sweeter, less bitter, and have thinner skin and fewer seeds.

Do you peel eggplant before cooking?

The vegetable's skin is completely edible and tends to soften as it cooks, so in many recipes it's fine to leave the skin on. That said, I recommend peeling the eggplant for eggplant parmesan. As an eggplant grows larger, the skin can become tough and bitter -- something that I prefer to avoid.

How to Cut Eggplant for Eggplant Parmesan

Slice the vegetable cross-wise into ¾-inch thick rounds. The rounds will vary in diameter since the eggplant is not a uniform cylinder, but try to keep the thickness of each slice uniform so that they cook in the same amount of time.

Do you need to salt eggplant before making Eggplant Parmesan?

No, as I said -- we're keeping this recipe quick and easy! Salting the raw eggplant is a helpful tool to achieve smooth and creamy eggplant. If you'd like to do so here, that's totally fine -- it won't hurt. By not salting the vegetable, it retains its shape more and has a slightly firmer texture. That works for me, so I skip the step of salting.

Ingredients

This is a quick overview of the ingredients that you'll need for the best baked eggplant parmesan recipe. As always, specific measurements and complete cooking instructions are included in the printable recipe box at the bottom of the post.

• Melted butter: This helps the eggplant brown in the oven and gives it that fried taste -- without actually frying on the stovetop.
• Corn Flakes cereal crumbs: you can crush your own cereal at home or purchase a box of Corn Flakes crumbs. This "secret" ingredient helps to give the eggplant that crispy, flavorful fried taste and texture. While some readers have reported success substituting with panko breadcrumbs, I find that Corn Flakes have a unique sweet-and-savory flavor, as well as a super-crunchy texture, that yields the best results.
• Grated Parmesan cheese: a can of pre-grated Parmesan is a great shortcut, or feel free to grate your own from a wedge if you prefer.
• Salt and pepper: flavor!
• Eggplant: pick a small eggplant for the best flavor.
• Egg: helps the breading adhere to the eggplant.
• Marinara sauce: a jar of store-bought marinara (such as Rao's brand) works well, or you can make your own using this recipe.
• Mozzarella cheese: use pre-shredded mozzarella for a shortcut, but a sliced ball of fresh mozzarella would also be great!

How to Make Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Since this eggplant parmesan recipe is baked in the oven, you'll just spend about 15 minutes preparing the meal and that's it! No frying in batches, no flipping at the stove, and so darn easy! The outside of the eggplant still gets crispy and flavorful before the sauce and cheese is added on top (thanks to a buttered dish), so you won't end up with a soggy vegetable.

1. Pour melted butter into an 11 x 7-inch dish.
2. Prepare egg in one shallow bowl and Corn Flake breading mixture in a separate shallow bowl.
3. Peel and slice eggplant.
4. Dip each slice of eggplant in the egg, and then coat with the crumb mixture.
5. Arrange the breaded eggplant slices in the buttered dish.
6. Bake in a 400°F oven for 20 minutes.
7. Flip the eggplant slices, then continue baking for 15 more minutes.
8. Add marinara sauce on top, sprinkle with mozzarella, and bake for 3-5 more minutes (until the cheese melts).
9. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or fresh basil leaves, if desired.

What to Serve with Quick and Easy Eggplant Parmesan

This Italian-inspired dish is best when served with a side of pasta and extra marinara sauce. Don't forget the garlic bread, breadsticks, or focaccia, too!

Looking to add some more veggies to the meal? Try a simple green salad with red wine vinaigrette, a Caesar salad, fennel salad with apples and creamy cider dressing, sauteed spinach with garlic, Garlic and Parmesan Cauliflower Mash or 2-ingredient Italian sugar snap peas.

Storage

This dish is best when served warm, immediately from the oven. Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, but the eggplant will get soggy as it sits. I love to reheat the leftover eggplant in the microwave or in a 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes, and then add it to a hoagie roll to make an Eggplant Parmesan sandwich. Delicious!

I do not recommend freezing baked eggplant parmesan, as the high water content in the vegetable yields a mushy, soggy dish when thawed.

Tips for the Best Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

• Look for a small eggplant, which tends to have the sweetest flavor. Large eggplants tend to be a bit more bitter.
• This dish serves 2-3 people as an entrée. You might be able to stretch it to serve 4 people if you're also offering a heartier side dish like pasta. If you're feeding a bigger family, I recommend using 2 eggplants, doubling all of the other ingredients, and baking the eggplant in a 9 x 13-inch dish or on a larger rimmed baking sheet.
• Corn Flakes are the best option for breaded eggplant. You can substitute with panko bread crumbs, but they are definitely not as crispy and they're lacking the flavor that you get from the crushed cereal.
• Use the best quality, most flavorful marinara sauce. I recommend Rao's brand sauce, which does not include any added sugar. If you prefer to make your own sauce, try this easy marinara recipe.
• Garnish with herbs like fresh parsley or fresh basil if you have some on hand!

More Italian Recipes to Try

• Classic Homemade Lasagna
• The Best Stuffed Pasta Shells
• One Skillet Cheese Tortellini with Italian Chicken Sausage
• Baked Ziti with Sausage
• Chicken Tortellini Soup
• Spinach Stuffed Shells
• Beef Ragu
• Baked Rigatoni
• Chicken Parmesan Casserole
• Ravioli Lasagna with Ricotta and Spinach

This recipe was originally published in June, 2017. The photos were updated in December, 2021.