Recipe: Eggplant Cacciatore Subs

For this I combined two of my go-to meals; Eggplant Parmesan Subs and Chicken Cacciatore Subs.  Eggplant parm is a go-to during Lent when I've had to much pizza and Chicken Cacciatore Subs are a Rachel Ray recipe that is one of my dad's favorites.  I wanted to use some air baked breaded eggplant slices that I had in the freezer.  My first thought was eggplant parm, then eggplant parm subs, then but there should be more veggies, then I can do chicken cacciatore and substitute eggplant for the chicken. So these were born and I think they will be a go-to in the future.

Recipe: For 2

Ingredients
3 Large Slices of Eggplant Air Baked (instructions below)
Half package Baby Bella (Crimini) Mushrooms sliced
Half medium onion
Half bell pepper
3/4 small jar marinara sauce
2 Ciabata Rolls
4 slices Provalone cheese
Olive Oil

Instructions

• Pre-heat your oven to 375.  Over medium low heat, cook mushrooms in a covered saute pan until soft.  Add olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, then add onions and peppers.  Increase heat to medium and saute vegetables until the onions are soft.  Add sauce and decrease heat to a simmer, this is the cacciatore.  
• Coat a small frying pan with olive oil and heat to medium.  Use thing pan to re-heat your eggplant slices and brown the crust. Once the eggplant is golden brown and re-heated, remove from the pan and cut in half.
• While the eggplant is re-heating, slice open your rolls.  I like to slice them so that only two sides are open making a pocket, this way the subs much less messy to eat.  Spread a little sauce in the roll.   Place three eggplant halves in each roll, top with the cacciatore then cheese. Your fingers will get a bit messy because the roll is not all the way open.  Cover a sheet pan with tin foil place subs on it and stick it in the oven.  Bake at 375 until the cheese is nice and melty. 

Air Baked Eggplant:  Slice and Salt your eggplant.  Dredge in egg, then bread crumbs (flavored as it please you).  Place a cooling rack on a sheet pan and lay your breaded eggplant slices on it.  Bake at 350 until browned.  

To Freeze: Place cooled, air baked eggplant slices on a sheet pan. Freeze.  Once slices are frozen they can be collected into a freezer bag.