Several of my first attempts at eggplant parmesan consisted of breading the eggplant before frying, and making it a “single layer” dish with thicker slices of eggplant. I liked that, but then I ran across the method described in this recipe where breading is not used and the dish is put together like a lasagna with layers. The eggplant is still fried, which is a time consuming process, but overall I find this a “lighter” meal that has a “fresh” taste to it, which works well as a side-dish as well as a main entrée.
The biggest challenge I have is estimating the amount of sauce to use in the lower levels so that I have enough to fully cover the top at the end to prevent the eggplant from charring too much during baking. Doubling the sauce recipe is one option, but I have found that just being lighter with the sauce on the lower levels works well. In a pinch, adding some jarred Passata to the final bit of sauce as needed is also an option depending on what’s in your pantry.
I have tried this in smaller baking dishes and using more layers, but found that I like the larger, “lasagna” pan. I do not recall any taste differences between the two, but the larger pan allows for better portion control in my opinion. This can make is a little more difficult to get the coverage you want on all layers, but I have yet to be left with not enough eggplant slices to cover a decent amount of the top layer.
A full written recipe may be found here: https://cook.karylstein.com/g/family/r/italian-style-eggplant-parmigiana