Eggplant Parmigiana

I've never really liked eggplants, or l'aubergine, as our French friends would call them.  Purple has always been one of my favorite colors, but the vegetable?  Non.

I decided to give it a second try one night a few weeks ago, when a friend gave me a few small eggplants from her garden.  I couldn't let good garden food go to waste, could I?  And I did accept them, after all.  It's not like she forced them into my fisted palms.  Although my brain was saying, "Are you sure?"

I wanted to give them a fair trial, so I decided to let them shine in a classic eggplant-centric dish: Eggplant Parmigiana.  There are hundreds of recipes out there, but I only had a few key ingredients on hand, so I made up my own. 

I breaded and baked the eggplant slices while making a homemade meat sauce.  The meat sauce was delicious!  I'm easy to please when it comes to beef.

After the eggplant had baked a bit, I layered them lasagna-style with the meat sauce and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and let it bake some more.  It looked great, but sadly the sauce wasn't enough to conceal the other flavors.

I still don't like eggplant.