Eggplant parmigiana

This is a lovely dish to cook when you have a little bit more time to prep. Or you can prepare everything early on if you're having guests over, then pop in the oven once they arrive. It looks like I've used a lot of cheese but I used a nice 'melty' one and mixed in some parmesan. Alternatively you can use some fresh mozzarella balls thinly sliced over the top.

Ingredients
serves 4 (takes about 1 hour)

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups bottled tomato passata
• 1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
• handful of basil leaves or substitute with other fresh herbs, I used fresh oregano, parsely, coriander & mint!
• 2 medium eggplants, thickly sliced
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour (or just use plain)
• 100g grated cheese + coarsely grated parmesan or sliced thinly mozzarella balls
• 1 tsp smoked or sweet paprika

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180oC
2. Lightly grease with olive oil, an 18cm x 25cm ovenproof dish and set aside.
3. Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat, add onion and cook until just soft then add garlic. After 30 seconds add can diced tomatoes, passata and chilli flakes, season to taste, add the fresh herbs and heat for about 10 minutes on a low simmer.
4. In the meantime, toss eggplant in seasoned flour, shake off excess and put aside. Once you've finished coating the eggplant, heat a large frying pan to medium-high and add couple of tbsp olive oil. Fry each slice until nice and brown on each side. You can start adding to the overproof dish, by layering the eggplant slightly overlapping each over.
5. Pour half the tomato mixture over the layer.
6. Finish layering eggplant and pour rest of tomato mixture over everything.
7. Top with cheese of your choice, sprinkle with paprika.
8. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 15 minutes or until bubbly & brown. Enjoy!