Tomato-bread-eggplant casserole

 Tomatoes are, essentially, bags of flavorful juice; I would argue that the best soaker-upper of tomato juice is toasted white porous bread. I've been dreaming of this meal: slice tomato --- make toast -- butter toast -- put tomato slice on toast --- salt and pepper on tomato --- eat. I haven't done this yet --- I've tended to jazz up to BLT, or fried-eggplant sandwich, or eggplant-tomato salad on toast. Last night, I was moved by the tomato-toast spirit, but was simultaneously feeling that I really should put up a new recipe here. So I jazzed up yet again, and here we are. 

No regrets! This casserole is delicious --- it has eggplant parmigiana vibes but is a lot more straightforward to make. The principle is from scalloped tomatoes, which I have never made but which sounds fantastic. 

Recipe

(I think that this should be very robust to large changes in proportions. I'm listing the proportions that I used. Made two 8-inch cake pans.)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut into roughly even pieces

--- white bread (ideally something porous; I used ~1/2 of a long baguette, sliced thinly and then slices halved.)

When oven is preheated, put bread pieces on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until crisper. Set aside when out of oven. Keep oven on.

Cut into small dice

--- Eggplants (I used one medium Italian eggplant and one large Japanese eggplant)

and sauté on medium-high heat, in a wide heavy pan, preferably non-stick, in 

--- olive oil, a generous amount

Add

--- salt

half-way through sautéing. Once tender and browned in spots, remove eggplant onto plate, wipe pan and set back on stovetop to use again in a few minutes. 

Grate

--- parmesan cheese (I used about 3/4 cup grated)

Mince or put through a garlic press

--- garlic (I used half a small head)

Cut into large dice

--- tomatoes (I used 4 medium heirloooms)

Heat up pan on a medium flame, add a generous amount of 

--- olive oil

When oil it hot but not very hot, add pressed garlic and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes, until the acridness of the garlic smell has mellowed but the garlic hasn't taken on much color. Then add the tomatoes and raise heat. Add

--- sugar (1-2 teaspoons)

--- salt 

--- 1-2 teaspoons of fish sauce (if you like to use fish sauce; it complements tomatoes very well)

and cook for 4-5 minutes on high heat. Then add the toasted bread, mix gently, and cook until the bread has absorbed most of the liquid (~30 seconds), then add eggplant and mix again. Turn off heat. Grind in some 

--- black pepper

And also mix in 

--- slivered basil (optional; one or two leaves)

Turn off heat, TASTE, and correct the seasoning with any of

--- salt

-- fish sauce

--- sugar (it should be detectably sweet but not "sugar-forward")

--- vinegar (wine or cider; I didn't need to use any yesterday)

--- pepper

Grease baking dish(es) with butter (I had a small piece of butter left over yesterday after doing this so I melted it into the warm tomato-bread-eggplant mixture), pour in the casserole mixture, sprinkle on a thin but even layer of parmesan, bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes, until top is browned. Once casserole is out, rest it for 15 minutes, then eat!