This Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti combines deeply flavored tomato meat sauce with crispy panko-crusted eggplant, delivering an outstanding pasta dish just as good as those served in restaurants. Perfect for a weekend dinner or date night!
I adore eggplants, but it’s not always easy to get my kids excited about them. When I saw my friend Kayo’s Deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan on My Home Cooked Meals, I knew instantly that I could add a Japanese twist to the recipe to win my kids’ hearts: Enter the Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
My favorite Japanese-style Meat Sauce is essential in this pasta recipe. The main difference between this Japanese rendition and the classic Italian bolognese sauce is my version simmers together both ground beef and pork, resulting in a more robust and meaty sauce. The use of ground pork keeps the sauce hearty but not overloaded with beef flavors. We also add more chopped vegetables like carrots, celery, and mushrooms, creating more depth, umami, and texture.
- A delicious way to celebrate the mighty eggplant.
- Influenced by Italian eggplant Parmigiana, the eggplant is coated with crispy panko and fried until golden brown. When placed on top of the luxurious meat sauce and spaghetti, the result is a hearty, nutritious dish guaranteed to satisfy any hunger.
- It makes an elegant date night dinner, but this is also super family-friendly. My kids scarfed their plates down!
- The hearty tomato sauce can be made in advance, allowing for a quick prep and cooking time.
Making the Japanese-style Meat Sauce in Advance
The hearty tomato sauce requires a long-simmering, so it’s a labor of love. To save time, I cook the meat sauce in advance and save a portion for this eggplant parmesan pasta the next day. With the sauce already made, this becomes a quick meal. From experience, I can also say that the sauce only gets better after reheating.
3 Quick Tips for Making Panko-Crusted Eggplant
1. Salt the eggplant
This extra step may sound tedious, but it’s 100% worth it. Salting helps retain the eggplant’s color and prevents it from soaking up too much oil during frying. After salting, be sure to pat the eggplant dry with paper towels.
2. Use Japanese Panko breadcrumbs
You could use regular Western-style bread crumbs, but panko creates a much lighter and crispy texture for the eggplant Parmesan.
3. Breading and Frying the eggplant
There are recipes that bake the eggplant, but I like to keep to the classic eggplant parmigiana cooking method by pan-frying the eggplant slices. You cannot achieve the crispy crust and deep caramelized flavor by baking. To minimize the greasiness, use a large frying pan or skillet with a small amount of oil to shallow-fry.
Itadakimasu!
While the meat sauce alone makes for a delicious pasta dish, the panko-crusted eggplant Parmesan takes this dish to another level. The combination of crispy eggplant and hearty meat sauce sets this dish apart.
My kids don’t normally get excited about eggplants, but they insisted on extra servings when I made this for dinner. I hope you, too, will enjoy the recipe! For date night, it might be nice to have fresh parmesan cheese, a grinder, fresh black pepper, and crushed chili peppers for that full Italian restaurant experience. A glass of your favorite Riesling or robust red wine will pair well with this dish.
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Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Ingredients
For the Eggplant Parmesan
- 1 globe eggplant
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (beaten)
- 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 2 cups neutral oil (for deep frying)
- 8 oz Mozzarella cheese (226 g; fresh)
For Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti
- 1 lb spaghetti (cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions)
- Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce (pre-cooked)
- Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan cheese (grated)
- basil (to garnish)
Instructions
To Prepare Eggplant Parmesan
- Cut eggplant into ⅓ inch (8.5 mm) thick rounds.
- Soak in water for 10 minutes and pat dry the eggplant slices with paper towels to remove moisture completely.
- Working with 1 slice at a time, dredge eggplant in flour, shaking off the excess. .
- Then, dip in the beaten egg and let the excess drip off. Dredge in panko until evenly coated.
- Transfer to a plate and continue with the next slice until you finish. For better presentation, wipe off panko from the eggplant skin with your finger, so it shows the beautiful purple color. In a large frying pan, heat the oil on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, shallow fry the eggplants until golden brown. If you are new to frying, read this post.
- Once they are nicely brown and crisp, drain on paper towels. Then, place slices of eggplant in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Put the mozzarella cheese on top and broil until the cheese is melted, about 2-3 minutes.
To Assemble Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti
- Place cooked pasta on individual serving plates and pour the meat sauce over. Then, put the Eggplant Parmesan on top. Lastly, pour more meat sauce.
- Garnish with basil and grate extra Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese so everyone can add their preferred amount of cheese on top. Enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers (separately) in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Tried this tonight, and it was delicious! Cheated a little on the sauce, used Rao’s and added Italian sausage and herbs. Next time, will make it from scratch. Loved the crispy texture as opposed to traditional baking.
Hi Kuulei! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! I LOVE Rao’s and always have it in my fridge (easy lunch for kids too). 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback.