Breaded Eggplant and Spaghetti w/ Tomato Cream Sauce

Source: Kuty's Kreations!

This is another recipe inspired by a long day at work and a craving for some rich hearty Italian food!  I didn't want to just make pasta and sauce out of a bottle, so I decided to make a semi-homemade sauce.

 Ingredients

• 8oz Spaghetti
• 28 oz dice tomatoes (I used Hunt's Fire Roasted w/ garlic)
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 6-7 Mushrooms, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic (if you don't use diced tomatoes w/ garlic in it)
• 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup cream
• 5-6 Baby Eggplants
• 1 Box Planko Breadcrumbs
• 2 Eggs (You can use buttermilk too)
• 1-2 Teaspoons Red Chili Powder 

Directions 

Breaded Eggplant

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare a baking pan with oil/ cooking spray/ or foil with a little bit of oil
3. Wash and cut each baby eggplant into 4-5 thin round slices
4. Beat the eggs with a little bit of milk and keep aside in a bowl
5. Mix ~1 cup of breadcrumbs with salt, pepper, basil, and 1 Teaspoon of Red Chili Pepper
6. Dip each eggplant piece into the egg mixture, then the breadcrumbs mixture.  Make sure you press down firmly to nicely coat each side. Then place the breaded eggplant on the baking pan.
7. Bake each side of the eggplant slices for 10-15 mins.  You may need to drizzle a little more oil on each side in order for them to brown. 
8. If they don't brown, set the oven to the broil setting and cook for a few minutes on each side to get the eggplants slices crispy.

Sauce

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil
2. Saute the chopped onions until golden brown.  (You can add the garlic at this time.) Then add the mushrooms and remaining red chili powder.  Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add the diced tomatoes and salt. Cook to a boil.  Then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Smash the tomatoes until you get the desired sauce consistency.  I wanted mine to be a little chunky.  If you want a smooth sauce, you'll have to use a food processor.
4. Slowly add the cream and simmer a few more minutes. You can add some parmesan cheese at this point if you want.
5. Add salt, pepper, basil for taste.

Pasta

1. Boil water and cook spaghetti al dente.

Kuty's Twist

If you want to save on some calories, you can grill the eggplant instead of bread it and skip the cream.  I feel that a simple sauce made from canned tomatoes tastes much better than the bottled tomato sauce.

I ended up making way too many breaded eggplants.  I'm just going to freeze them and maybe make some eggplant pizza or sandwiches next week!