These Eggplant Parmesan Toasts are a hearty, fried eggplant appetizer that can be served as appetizers or even a light meal!
A Lightly Fried Eggplant Appetizer (Or Dinner!)
I love anything made parmesan style…Chicken parm, eggplant parm, meatball parm…It’s all good.
And when you make that into a bite sized appetizer that I can eat while hanging out with friends or watching the game – even better. But my boys, they don’t like the cheese. I don’t even know where they come from since Christie and I are in agreement that the cheese is the best part.
SO a lot of the time when we make eggplant parm or chicken parm we leave some of the thinly breaded, crispy pieces aside for them, just to eat as is or to dip in marinara sauce…which makes this the perfect appetizer.
You can deconstruct it, leave off the cheese, add a lot of sauce or just a little. However you like to eat it. Deconstructed turned out to be a hit with our kids, their favorite part was the toasted bread pieces – they ate it like crazy. Kids are so weird. Like the next time I need a snack for my boys I’m going to throw some olive oil on bread and toast it in the oven…and maybe some sauce on the side for dipping.
But we vote for eating it just as it’s shown. Lots of sauce, big thick slice of fresh mozzarella and of course the crispy fried eggplant.
I used a round 3 inch round metal cookie cutter to make my eggplant rounds about the same size as my toast. You don’t have to do that but you’re going to want to make your eggplant pieces about the same size as the piece of toast you’re putting it on so it’s easy to eat.
The you bread them and fry them up like this.
I also used our Homemade Marinara Sauce here, I think it totally makes the recipe…but you can substitute your own sauce or a good jarred sauce if you want to – it’s fried eggplant and cheese – it’s gonna be good either way.
As far as putting these appetizers together, you do want to do that as close to eating them as you can since the sauce will make the toasts soggy the longer they sit. But you can make the toasts, fry the eggplant and slice the cheese ahead of time so the actual assembly won’t take long at all.
And don’t worry about them sitting around once you put them out – they’ll be gone in a flash.
Looking For More Appetizer Recipes?
- Fried Poutine Wontons
- Copycat Totino’s Pizza Rolls
- Meatball Pizza Quesadillas
- Pepperoni Pizza Arancini
![](https://www.mantitlement.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/eggplant-parmesan-toasts-featured-300x300.jpg)
Eggplant Parmesan Toasts
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
These tasty fried eggplant appetizers are fun for parties, but also hearty enough to serve as a light meal!
Ingredients
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 large baguette
- olive oil
- salt pepper
- 2 small eggplants, peeled and sliced into 1/2” thick rounds
- 2 cups fresh tomato sauce (or your favorite jarred sauce)
- fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Slice the baguette into 1/2″ thick pieces, brush with olive oil then add salt and pepper. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, flip and cook another 3 minutes Remove from the oven to cool.
- In a small saucepan, heat the marinara sauce over low heat while you bread the eggplant.
- Mix the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese together in a bowl and add the beaten eggs to another bowl.
- Add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. The amount of oil you use will depend on the size of your skillet, you want a shallow fry so at least 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of the pan.
- While the oil is heating you can start breading the eggplant. Start by dipping each round into the egg, letting the excess drip off, then coating in the bread crumb mixture.
- Add the breaded eggplant to the hot oil and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown then remove to a paper towel lined plate to cool.
- Repeat until all the eggplant is fried.
- Assemble the toasts by placing a spoonful of sauce in each toast, followed by the fried eggplant and then topped with a slice of mozzarella cheese.
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Lovely recipe. I need to make these ASAP!
Thanks Renee, let me know how you like it!
What a great appetizer! I would eat all of these!
This is super awesome for a game party. Great idea!