Eggplant Pie

When eggplants go on sale for 99 ¢ a pound I get really excited because it means I can make eggplant parmigiana without breaking the bank! However, said dish is a bit time-consuming to make and I only make the effort for one batch. The eggplant that is left over works perfectly for a dish I have decided to call eggplant pie (because I am oh so creative). It's relatively fast and simple to make because you just pile everything into a baking dish and put it in the oven. Sounds like the kind of dish a college student would appreciate, right? Plus, it can easily be made as a vegetarian, or even vegan, meal by simply leaving out the turkey and cheese.


Ingredients (makes 1 8'' baking dish):
1/2 large eggplant
2 large tomatoes
3/4 c broccoli
1/2 medium onion
1/2 small bell pepper
seasoned salt
pepper
dried basil
3 hot italian turkey sausages or 1/2 pound ground turkey
1/2  clove garlic
Parmesan or Romano cheese
olives

Start by slicing your eggplant and tomatoes into circles. Line the bottom of your greased pan with half of your eggplant slices and top these with half of the tomato slices.

Chop up the rest of your vegetables, reserving about 1/3 of your diced onion and your garlic for the meat. Layer the tomatoes and eggplant with another 1/3 of the onion, half of the bell pepper, and half of the broccoli. Sprinkle seasonings lightly over these layers.

Now mix the reserved onion and garlic with your meat. If you are using sausages as I did, you will need to remove the casing. This can be done by simply squeezing the meat out or by peeling the casing off. Carefully press the meat into an even layer over the vegetables.

Repeat the process in reverse order, finishing with the eggplant slices on top.

Top with cheese and olives and then bake at 350 °F for 35-45 minutes, or until the meat is fully cooked. Viola! A full meal (or 3) that takes about an hour in total to assemble and cook.