Eggplant Parmesan

This weekend I fulfilled a friend's wish and made eggplant parmesan. Out of curiosity today I googled other recipes for it and, of course, found as many recipes as there are people who make the dish. Naturally, everyone's sauce is going to be a little different, although I found that some make the sauce right in the casserole, i.e. put in the sauce ingredients and let the sauce cook there along with the eggplant. Others, like myself, make a marinara or other style sauce and apply it to the casserole. The biggest difference I found was in the prep of the eggplant. I slice, salt, let the bitter liquids weep, and then dredge in flour, dip in egg, coat with seasoned breadcrumbs, and finally fry. I season the crumbs with salt, pepper, and parmesan. What do you guys do? Make the sauce in the casserole or beforehand? And what do you do with your eggplant, fry, no fry or even bake? I really like the way mine comes out so I probably won't change, but sometimes I think the way I make it might be a little overkill.

I used to make this dish just as you describe. But I gave it up years ago because of calories, fat, etc. I love eggplant and when I want it, resort to a baked version, without all the fuss and calories. It is yummy and seems to satisfy my craving.

I don't make it Gary, but my wife does. and here is how she does it. She makes her marinara sauce seperaately. The eggplant she slices about 1/4 inch thick, and dredges in a seasoned flour. She then dredges the sliced eggplant in EVOO, When all the eggplant is done in the skillet, she layers it in a baking dish eggplant, marinara, mozz, parmesan, ending with a heavy coating of parmesan on top. I don't know how long she then bakes the dish, but I do know how long I can wait to start scarfing when it comes out of the oven, and it AIN'T long!

I fry the eggplant, after letting it weep, but with no egg batter, just a light coating of flour (Emilia- Romanga style.) And then make the sauce right in the dish with San Marzano tomatoes. This is one of my favorites.