My Grandmother's Eggplant In Tomato Sauce Recipe

My mother's mother was an excellent basic cook. She could make very good German roast (sauerbraten), semolina pudding with raspberry syrup, chocolate pudding, etc. She was also an excellent baker, and I have shared her white cake recipe here before.

One of her dishes that Dick really likes is eggplant in tomato sauce. It is garlicky and a great vegetarian main course, if you like those.

• 2 eggplants (pick the dark purple ones, shiny and unmarred skin, light rather than heavy when you toss them in your hand -- those have fewer seeds)
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, well mixed
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup Safflower oil
• 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Peel and slice the eggplant. Sprinkle with salt and spread over a surface to "sweat". Wait 30 minutes or even an hour, then wipe the sweat beads that pop up on the slice surface and dry both sides.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Dip each eggplant slice first in egg, then in the flour, and fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Mix the crushed tomatoes with water, salt and pepper.

To assemble, take a soufflé dish and put a layer of eggplant slices at the bottom. Sprinkle some garlic slices on top. Put some tomato sauce on top. Alternate eggplant layers, garlic, and tomato sauce until all done. Bake in 350F over for 40 minutes. Cover if the mixture starts bubbling.

Serve as is with good crusty bread. You can also serve this as a side dish. Either way, it's deeelicious!