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.
Table of Contents
If you love Italian recipes, be sure to try these popular stuffed shells with meat, this 20-minute linguine with clam sauce, and this sheet pan Italian shrimp, too!
How to Make this Baked Eggplant Parmesan Recipe | Video
Certain recipes just taste like home, and this is definitely one of them. 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 this 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!
Mouthwatering. I love eggplant and have made this weekly since coming across your recipe a few months back. So easy to make and the best eggplant recipe by far. Thanks for sharing.
– Yvonne
Before You Get Started
- 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. The popular dinner has been adapted over generations, and Americanized by families like ours. This particular recipe is an easy version for busy folks. 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.
- 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.
- You do not need to salt the eggplant before cooking it. Salting raw eggplant helps to achieve smooth and creamy eggplant, so feel free to do so if you’d like. By not salting the vegetable, however, it retains its shape and has a slightly firmer texture. That works for me!
- Corn Flakes cereal is the “secret” ingredient helps to give the eggplant that crispy, flavorful fried taste and texture. You can crush your own cereal at home or purchase a box of Corn Flakes crumbs. 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. If you have leftover cornflakes, make cornflake chicken, too!
- 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. For a bigger family, use 2 eggplants, double all of the other ingredients, and bake the eggplant in a 9 x 13-inch dish or on a larger rimmed baking sheet.
Directions
The oven does all of the work here, but the outside of the eggplant is still crispy and flavorful. No soggy vegetables allowed! I’ve included detailed directions for this easy eggplant parmesan recipe below, but here’s the overview:
- Pour melted butter into a baking dish. This gives the eggplant that fried taste and crispy, golden brown texture — without actually frying on the stovetop.
- Prepare egg in one shallow bowl and Corn Flake breading mixture in a separate shallow bowl. A can of pre-grated Parmesan is a great shortcut, or feel free to grate your own from a wedge if you prefer.
- Peel the eggplant. 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.
- 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.
- Dip each slice of eggplant in the egg, and then coat with the crumb mixture.
- Arrange the breaded eggplant slices in the buttered pan.
- Bake the eggplant slices, flipping after the first 20 minutes.
- Add marinara sauce on top, sprinkle with mozzarella, and bake for 3-5 more minutes (until the cheese melts). A jar of store-bought marinara sauce (such as Rao’s brand) works well, or you can make homemade marinara sauce.
- Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or fresh basil leaves, if desired.
Serving Suggestions
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 vinegar salad, a Caesar salad, roasted yellow squash, sauteed spinach with garlic, garlic and Parmesan cauliflower mash, garlic roasted broccoli, or sauteed zucchini.
Storage Tips
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.
This is my go-to eggplant Parmesan recipe! Its simply delicious! When I add the cheese at the end I turn on the oven’s broiler and keep a close watch so the cheese gets just slightly browned…yum. Thanks so much for sharing. My 3 year old loves it too!!
– Cathy L.
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Did you make this recipe?
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Watch How to Make It
Grandma’s Baked Eggplant Parmesan
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, melted
- ½ cup Corn Flakes cereal crumbs
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- Dash of ground black pepper
- 1 small eggplant
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 2 ounces (½ cup) shredded mozzarella cheese (or use sliced fresh mozzarella if you prefer)
- Optional garnish: chopped fresh parsley, basil, or other herbs
- Optional for serving: cooked spaghetti with additional marinara sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Pour melted butter into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Set aside.
- Place egg in a shallow dish. Set aside. In a separate shallow dish, combine Corn Flakes crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Peel eggplant and cut into ¾-inch thick slices. Dip each slice in egg and coat with crumb mixture.
- Place in a single layer in the prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 20 minutes; flip the slices over, and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Pour marinara sauce over eggplant and top with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 3-5 more minutes, or until the cheese melts.
Notes
- Look for a small eggplant, which tends to have the sweetest flavor.
- 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 breadcrumbs, but they are definitely not as crispy and they’re lacking the flavor that you get from the crushed cereal.
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in June, 2017. It was updated in August, 2024.
I tried this recently and OMG it was so easy and delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I did actually use wheat bread crumbs and they came out nice and crispy. I did make my own marinara sauce and i doubles the recipe! This one is a keeper!!
Great! Thanks, Lauren!
I have tried many recipes and this is by far the best. Thank you! It’s delicious.
Yay! So glad to hear that! 🙂
Hey, guess what? This recipe is awesome for college students too! I like to meal prep to leave myself more free time, and this was awesome! I doubled the recipe and made a gigantic pan, I’m very happy with it 🙂 thank you so much
Great! Thanks, Alex!
Delicious… Was a big hit with the whole family… Soooo quick and easy!!
Wonderful! Thanks, Jen!
Hi Blair – I am a broke college student renting a place near campus that doesn’t even have an oven, just a toaster oven we bought. I don’t have energy after school and work to stand and try something, and I thought I would never be able to make my favorite meal myself. However, I had a slow week this week and decided to try this recipe in my toaster oven – and it came out FANTASTIC!! I’m feeling like a regular chef over here. Thank you for sharing this!
Carly! That’s wonderful!!! Good to know that it works in the toaster oven, too! 🙂
This is incredible and so easy! I did use panko and fresh mozzarella and was amazing! Thank you!!
Thanks, Beckie! 🙂
Wickedly happy my hubs does not like eggplant. I get it all! And soooo yummy!
Hah! Thanks, Mary! I’m glad that you like it! 🙂
It was a hit! Thank you for sharing! This is a make again dish for sure.
Wonderful! Thanks, Lisa!
I have made several much more complicated eggplant parmesan recipes in the past, but this by far tasted the best! I love how quickly it comes together. Even my carnivorous husband ate a plate of it without complaining! Will definitely be making this again in the future.
That’s great, Brooke! I’m so glad that your husband even approved! 🙂
I made this and it was a delicious hit! Served it with pasta. ????????
Awesome! Thank you, Kathy!
I came here to say that I was VERY skeptical of this recipe. I have an old fashioned eggplant Parmesan recipe that I love so so much but it’s so messy to make and it takes forever to fry all the eggplant. This is a quick alternative that is not only easy to make but also tastes amazing. I am so glad I found and tried this recipe out!
Hooray! So glad that it exceeded your expectations! 🙂
Amazing. I can’t believe how easy and delicious this was, without having to deep-fry the eggplant! It was crispy on the outside and tender inside. I used Trader Joe’s brand rice crispies because that’s what I had, and they worked perfectly. This will definitely go in the regular rotation. If you’re having any doubts about making this recipe, don’t–just make it!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
I’m so glad that you enjoyed it, Nadia! We made this for dinner last night too, and it’s always a hit with our family as well. I would have never thought to try the rice cereal, but I’m glad to know it works! 🙂
Amazing!!!! One of my new favorite recipes of all time!!! Thank you!!
I need a redo of this one. The flavor is great, the idea makes sense and the process is simple. I would like to stress the importance of the eggplant slices laying flat in the buttered dish, and also finding the right size eggplant for this recipe. My local grocery store only had big round fat eggplants available, which led to me having to stagger and stack them in the dish. I wasn’t able to get the brilliant crisp this way. Even so, we cleared are plates and enjoyed the flavor. Lesson learned ????
Oh, yes — you definitely need the eggplant slices to lay flat in your pan. If you have very wide, large rounds, just use a bigger dish. Hopefully it will be a bigger success next time! 🙂
Just one word: YUMMY! I have made this 3 tines now. We moved to rural Alabama and the nearest Italian restaurant is over 1 hour away. We are really saving money and calories by not eating out. This is my favorite recipe… I only wish I found this recipe 20 years ago.
This is so simple and easy. I did one thing different and salted the eggplant first to draw out moisture, they turned out amazing! Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks, Karla! So glad that you enjoyed it!
My 15 yr old son challenge me that I couldn’t make a meatless meal he would like to eat. So, I made this recipe with pasta. He LOVED it. He is the pickest eater on the face of the earth. So for him to ask for seconds is a big deal. He said that I beat the challenge. Thanks for sharing.
That makes me so happy to hear, Annie! Thank you! 🙂
This is my go-to eggplant Parmesan recipe! Its simply delicious! When I add the cheese at the end I turn on the oven’s broiler and keep a close watch so the cheese gets just slightly browned…yum. Thanks so much for sharing. My 3 year old loves it too!!
One of my favorite dinner recipes!!
Thanks, Sylvia! 🙂
Mouthwatering. I love eggplant and have made this weekly since coming across your recipe a few months back. So easy to make and the best eggplant recipe by far. Thanks for sharing.
That’s amazing! Thank you, Yvonne!