Roasted Eggplant with Garlic and Lemon

I had an extra eggplant leftover from making eggplant parm.  "What am I going to do with this thing?", I thought.  "I don't know of any other recipes requiring eggplant.  Maybe I can roast it?  Or maybe I should just give it to my mom.  She'll know what to do with it."

Both of my parents have been pretty sick the past couple of weeks with some sort of endless virus.  I had planned to go to their house this past Saturday night and prepare dinner for them.  Then my mom called Saturday morning to report that my dad was feeling better, and although she still felt pretty weak they both had a pretty nasty case of cabin fever and needed to get out.  They offered to come to my house for dinner instead.  This was great news for three reasons:  First and foremost, they were feeling better!  Second, I'd be able to cook in my own kitchen.  I don't know about you, but I really love cooking in my own kitchen.  It's a bit cramped, but it's what I'm used to, and, as a creature of habit, what I'm comfortable with.  Cooking in someone else's kitchen is like shopping at a completely different grocery store.  You don't know where anything is or if they have the same tools.  Third, I was semi-relieved to not have to make the trip since I was over there once earlier in the week to make dinner after work, and I knew I'd be over again after work one night the following week.

For the menu I opted for an incredibly simple recipe of chicken marsala which was accompanied by that rogue eggplant roasted with garlic and lemon.  It was fabulous! And my dad just happened to bring a fantastic Italian white wine that paired perfectly.

Ingredients
1 large eggplant (approximately 1 lb.)
3 tbs. olive oil
1 large garlic clove (or two smaller ones), pressed
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Eggplant can be bitter and watery when baked.  To minimize this, cover each slice of eggplant in kosher salt and place in a colander with a bowl underneath it (to catch the drippings) in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the eggplant to "sweat". 
3. Rinse the salt off of the eggplant slices, and pat each slice dry with a paper towel.  Set aside.
4. In a small bowl combine the olive oil and pressed garlic.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I used a scant 1/4 tsp of salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper.
5. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet.  Place the eggplant slices on the parchment paper skin side down.
6. Brush each eggplant slice with the olive oil mixture.
7. Bake the eggplant slices for 15-20 minutes, just enough to get crisp on the outside but not burn.
8. Serve as a side dish to your favorite meals.

Yields 4 servings

P.S.  Sorry there are no pictures of this one.  I can't seem to find my spare memory card, and all of my larger memory cards are currently in Idaho with the snowboarding fiance and his GoPro camera thus rendering my DSLR useless :-/