Scratch-Made Tomato Sauce with Breaded and Baked Eggplant Rounds

 

Homemade tomato sauce with these crunchy, chewy eggplant rounds is every bit as satisfying as classic Eggplant Parmesan! Making your own tomato sauce is definitely not as easy as going into your pantry and pulling out a jar of the store-bought stuff...but if you have never attempted your own tomato sauce, this is the season to do it because you will not believe how delicious a tomato sauce made from fresh garden tomatoes tastes!! For the tomato sauce, you have to peel the tomatoes before you make the sauce and the easiest way to do that is to boil them for just a minute and them submerge in ice-water. The skin will start to peel right off on its own. I explain in the recipe below.

If you're not all that familiar with cooking with eggplant, it's really not as intimidating (or tasteless and spongy) as it seems!! The trick to cooking eggplant is letting it sweat out its moisture before you start to cook it. This insures that you'll get a nice chewy, crisp roasted finished produce rather than a soggy one. I explain in the recipe below.

Scratch-Made Tomato Sauce

what you'll need:

10 tomatoes

1t italian seasoning (basil, oregano, parsley)

1 clove garlic

pinch sugar (I used coconut sugar)

pinch salt and pepper

-Get a big pot of water boiling on the stove. 

-Fill up a large bowl with ice water and set aside. 

-Slice a shallow "X" with a sharp knife on the bottom of each tomato. This helps the skin begin to peel off the tomatoes after the boiling process. 

-Submerge all the tomatoes into boiling water for 1 minute then transfer to ice-water bowl. Let the tomatoes sit in there until they are cool enough to handle (a few minutes) and then peel off the skin from the tomatoes. It will come off very easily. 

-Transfer peeled tomatoes to blender and pulse until they are the consistency you're going for. I like it a little chunky so I pulse just a few times. 

-Empty out the pot in which you boiled the tomatoes, return to stove and pour in the tomatoes. 

-Grate your garlic right into the pot

-Add your italian seasoning and the sugar

-Bring the tomatoes to a boil and then reduce to medium-high heat and cook uncovered until it reduces by half, stirring frequently. It will take about an hour. 

-you're done! Sauce is ready to eat!!

Breaded and Baked Eggplant Rounds

What you'll need:

1 large eggplant (long and skinny is great for this but any size will do)

1 cup of bread crumbs (I used fresh whole wheat bread that I buzzed in the food processor)

2 flax eggs (2T flaxmeal in 6T water) (Or 1 egg if you eat eggs....)

salt and pepper

sea salt

-Slice your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds

-Place the rounds into a colander and sprinkle generously with sea salt. Turn the rounds a couple times to ensure that both sides are covered with the salt. 

-Let the rounds sit in the colander for 15 minutes. 

-Rinse the rounds under water, then place between two towels and press down to dry them.

-Pre-heat oven to 400*

-Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and set aside

-Whisk up your flax eggs in a bowl 

-Pour bread crumbs onto a plate and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix around.

-Dip the eggplant rounds one at a time, first into the flax mixture to coat, and then into the breadcrumbs, then onto baking sheet.

-Once all the rounds are coated and on the baking sheet, bake at 400* for 20 min on one side, then flip and continue to cook 20 minutes on the other side.