Eggplant Parmesan Sliders

Polar vortex week. The national weather service said "extremely dangerous cold" on Tuesday and they were not exaggerating. We had minus 18 on Wednesday morning, wind chill minus 42. Schools closed for the first time in four years. The kids were home. Biscuit would not go outside. I refused to drive Wednesday; my dispatcher agreed without argument (she knows me; Marcy Liu, she has been my dispatcher for six years, she trusts me when I say it is too cold and I trust her when she says it is fine). The truck sat in the yard with its block heater plugged in and its fuel treated and its tank full, and I sat in my kitchen in two sweaters and made vegetable soup with a ham bone I had frozen from Christmas.

Wednesday afternoon, the power went out. For twelve hours. We moved to the living room with a fire in the woodstove and candles and all six of us piled under blankets watching old movies on Dave's laptop battery until that died too. The kids were wonderful — Josie became a one-woman entertainment committee, telling a ghost story that went on for thirty minutes and involved a truck stop in Oklahoma and a ghost named Betty who gave bad driving directions. Tyler and Amber told her it was the best story they had ever heard. Justin laughed so hard he cried. I made them grilled cheese on the woodstove at seven o'clock, pressing the sandwiches down on the cast iron with a heavy pot, and they were perfect. Grilled cheese in a blackout is the food of my people. The power came back at 10 and nobody wanted to leave the living room. Dave and I slept on the couch and the floor and the kids stayed in the living room too, all of us piled in there in the aftermath of a bad night that was, somehow, also a good night.

Thursday I drove a Kearney run. Minus 4, sunny, empty roads. I came home by two. The cookbook's final-final-final manuscript was locked Thursday evening and is now in design. Sarah sent the first mock of the interior layout: a recipe page with a photograph of my slow cooker on a truck cab dashboard at sunrise with coffee steam rising. The page looked like a book. I printed it and put it on the fridge. Josie said, "Mom, that's fancy." I said, "Yeah." Dave said, "That's you." I said, "I know." I still can't quite believe it. A book. A real book. My hands made something that will be in a library. I will put the first copy in the Grand Island library in April. I have already decided. I will cry at the circulation desk. I have already decided.

The grilled cheese we made on the woodstove that Wednesday night — pressed down with a cast iron pot, candlelit, eaten under blankets — reminded me that the best food is the kind that holds people together when everything else has gone sideways. These Eggplant Parmesan Sliders are my stovetop version of that same idea: melty cheese, something warm and a little crispy, something you can hand to a kid and watch their face change. They don’t require a blackout to be worth making, but they’ll taste like they do.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 12 sliders

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant (about 1 lb), sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
1 cup marinara sauce
6 oz fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced
12 slider buns, split
Fresh basil leaves, for serving (optional)
Red pepper flakes, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Salt the eggplant. Lay eggplant rounds on a paper-towel-lined baking sheet and sprinkle both sides with kosher salt. Let sit 10 minutes, then pat thoroughly dry with paper towels. This draws out moisture and prevents soggy sliders.
Set up your breading station. Place flour in a shallow dish, beaten eggs in a second dish, and breadcrumbs combined with half the Parmesan, garlic powder, and oregano in a third dish.
Bread the eggplant. Working one slice at a time, dredge each round in flour (shake off excess), dip in egg, then press firmly into the breadcrumb mixture to coat both sides.
Pan-fry the eggplant. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook eggplant rounds 3–4 minutes per side until deep golden brown and tender. Add oil between batches as needed. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate.
Add sauce and cheese. Reduce heat to medium-low. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of marinara onto each fried eggplant round in the skillet, then top with a slice of mozzarella. Cover the pan with a lid for 1–2 minutes until the cheese is fully melted.
Toast the buns. While the cheese melts, place slider buns cut-side down in a dry skillet or under the broiler for 1–2 minutes until lightly toasted.
Assemble and serve. Spread a small spoonful of marinara on each toasted bun bottom. Set one cheesy eggplant round on each, sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, add a basil leaf and pinch of red pepper flakes if using, and cap with the bun top. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per slider)

Eggplant Parmesan Sliders — The Comfort Food That Carried Us Through the Blackout