The crispy, Panko-coated eggplant slices are so good, I could eat a whole plate of just those. But it doesn't hurt to throw on some mozzarella, tomatoes, peppadews, and basil, and sandwich the whole thing in a ciabatta roll. I was telling Joe just that when he asked, sort of absent-mindedly, "Is it crispy?" I bit into one, and the loud crunch got his attention. Then he ended up pilfering some eggplant slices.

The recipe is a bit of a production, but I think you can easily streamline it without affecting the quality. Skip the whole eggplant-salting thing for starters. This is a graffiti eggplant, and it not only looks cool, but it's smaller than your typical Italian eggplant and not as bitter or full of seeds; hence, no need to salt and drain. One of these made about a quarter of the recipe, which was a perfect amount for us. And I made those oven-roasted tomatoes (they're lost between layers in the photo, in case you were wondering), and they were good but I don't think worth the trouble again. A spoon of marinara will do it for me next time.
You also don't need the whole inch of oil in the skillet, or the frying thermometer. We're not making bone-in fried chicken here, so drop a crumb of panko in the oil -- if it doesn't do much, the oil's not hot enough, and if it starts to bubble up it's hot enough. I cooked them by color rather than time, flipping and removing them when they were golden brown. I hate spongy, al dente eggplant, but these were meltingly soft. A bit of a production, yes, but also a very satisfying lunch.
This post was featured on
Yummly's 10 Egg-cellent Eggplant Recipes.
I also wanted to thank Dawn at DJ's Sugar Shack for passing on to me the Versatile Blogger award and Anuja of Simple Baking for the Liebster Blog award. Since I've received the Versatile Blogger award in the past, you don't need to read all about me again or the blogs I recommend. But if you'd like to anyway, click here. And definitely visit Dawn's and Anuja's great blogs!