Baked Italian Eggplant Stacks

This tasty dish is incredibly easy to make!  It’s just a matter of layering the ingredients in a pan.  The really hard part is being patient while it bakes, because it smells so darn good while it’s cooking!  It takes some time for the eggplant to get tender, but it is well worth the wait.  It went very nicely with a seared pork chop and small Italian salad.  This dish is Atkins Induction friendly and Paleo-Primal friendly as well if you eat the occasional cheese.  Of course, you can add browned ground beef to this dish for a complete meal.

This recipe appears in Vol. 5 of Jennifer Eloff’s Low Carbing Among Friends cookbooks.  Be sure you add this series to your cookbook collection as it contains some of the tastiest recipes from George Stella and other very talented low-carb cooks. You can order your set (or purchase them individually) from Amazon or here:  http://amongfriends.us/.

INGREDIENTS:

1 T. olive oil

16 oz. eggplant, sliced 3/16″ thick or less

3 large Roma tomatoes, sliced thin

1 c. grated mozzarella cheese

1/3 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

4 oz. ricotta cheese

1 tsp. oregano (or Italian Seasoning blend of your choice)

½ c. low-carb sugar-free spaghetti sauce (I use homemade, Belo vita or Lucini Italia Tomato Basil)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Grease well a ceramic quiche or pie plate with the olive oil.  Slice eggplant and tomatoes.  I found I had enough eggplant and tomatoes for 3 layers in my pan.  Begin with a layer of eggplant on the bottom of the quiche dish.  Top with a layer of tomato slices.  Next sprinkle with 1/3 of the oregano/Italian seasoning.  Next sprinkle 1/3 of the Mozzarella and 1/3 of the Parmesan evenly on top.  Dot surface with 1/3 of the ricotta.  Repeat the layers two more times.  Spoon the spaghetti sauce evenly over the top, spreading it with the back of your spoon.  Pop into preheated 350º oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes.  Check at 1 hour with a fork.  The tomatoes and eggplant will produce a great deal of moisture during the first half of cooking (this is to be expected), but all of it will evaporate by the time the eggplant is tender.  If the fork goes into the eggplant easily, the dish is done.  If not, cook it another 15-20 minutes.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 6 servings, each contains:

157.2 calories, 10.2 g  fat, 7.65 g  carbs,  2.78 g  fiber, 4.87 g  NET CARBS, 9.8 g  protein, 274 mg sodium