Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
3 cloves garlic
flour (for dredging)
pepper
salt
Herbs (I use thyme, rosemary and oregano or a herbes de provence mix)
olive oil
tomato sauce (canned or jarred is fine)
2 balls of mozzerella
1 cup Parmesan cheese or more mozzerella (Once I used some Emmental because I had to get rid of it and it tasted just fine)
Basil

variations in layers:
Whole tomatoes
artichoke hearts
mushrooms
zucchini
etc.

Tip: Bring some water to a boil and soak eggplant slices in water as it cools for 20 minutes before frying it to reduce the amount of olive oil needed to cook the vegetable.

Directions:
1. Slice eggplant thinly
2. mix the flour salt and pepper on a plate and herbs/ herbes de provence and dredge the eggplant pieces.
3. Put olive oil in a pan and browned both sides of every piece of eggplant. I roughly chopped the garlic and cooked that the same way, a little for every pan of eggplant (you can use a lot because it tastes sweet at the end!) Every time a pan full of eggplant pieces is done, that becomes a new layer. Layer cooked pieces in a glass pan. Depending on how much eggplant you are using that will determine the pan size. REMEMBER the Eggplant will cook down.
4. layers: a little olive oil, eggplant, tomato sauce, cheese 2, eggplant, tomato sauce, eggplant, tomato sauce, mozzarella, more herbs on top!
5. baked it all together at 375 (195-200 C), for about 20 minutes (or until the cheese on top has melted and started to brown. Because you have already cooked the eggplant through this should not take too long.

Recipe Source: My own.

AMENDMENT: I made the mistake of not adding enough sauce for the layers the first time, but it was still really good. Each layer should have a thin coating of sauce.
I have made this maybe 40 times and it is amazing every time. New variations can include adding sliced artichoke hearts, mushrooms, or slices of whole tomatoes. The variation pictured has artichoke hearts, sliced whole tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes.