Eggplant Gratin

I consider gratins to be French casseroles. It involves stir frying, frying, or sauteing vegetables (the vegetarian ones), and baking them with a specially prepared sauce and cheese underneath a crumbly, crispy topping of bread crumbs. I have tried three different gratins before - potato and cauliflower gratin, zucchini gratin, and recently, eggplant gratin, borrowed from Ina Garten's recipe.

The formula:

1. Cut the eggplant into thin slices and pan fry them on either sides. Drain eggplants on paper napkins.
2. Prepare a ricotta-based custard by mixing some ricotta with an egg, half-and-half, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. 
3. Layer a baking dish in the following order - a layer of fried eggplants, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, some marinara/tomato sauce, another layer of eggplants, salt, pepper, ricotta custard, and some more parmesan cheese. If you have more eggplant slices (like I did, you can do a couple of additional layers ending with the ricotta custard).
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 F. 

This turned out to be the best gratin of the three that I've tried. It need not be as rich, though. You could cut down the cheese (I used cheddar, because that was all I had), use a smaller quantity of low-fat ricotta, and pan-fry the eggplant slices with just a hint of olive oil.

The gratin was slightly crunchy, creamy, and a warm sumptuous meal.