Bon Apetit's Best Eggplant Parmesan ever was one of the most time consuming and least satisfying recipes I've ever made. The dish wasn't inedible, but was certainly very oily and heavy and curiously meaty. I suppose this is a spectacular dish for eggplant haters and meat loving vegetarians, but I was missing a certain brightness. Despite using the shortest recommended cooking times, the overall taste can only by described as tired-from-overcooking. The "marinara" is essentially a sauce cooked down into a thick roasted tomato paste. The eggplant virtually disappeared under all the breading (which also sort of thickened and disintegrated) into the sauce and cheese. The only step I did not follow was to peel the eggplant (only because our peeler is broken), and it made no difference whatsoever. After a lengthy sitting, frying, and baking processes, the eggplant, skin and all, was indeed creamy, just invisible. I was left feeling like there has got to be a better way.

Marinara = 3+ hours (from prep to cooking to processing, not including cooling)
Eggplant Prep = 1.5 hours (washing and prep, to salting and sitting)
Frying = 1.5+ (I started the oven a little after we actually started putting in slices to fry at 4 or 5 pieces each batch so it was just wasted energy. I don't know how anyone could properly fry all the eggplant in 15 minutes at 5 minutes each batch one at a time with 3 dredges.
Baking = 45 min
Browning = 15 min
Preparation = 1+ hours (grating and slicing cheese, making breading, setting up, cleaning, heating oil time, etc.)

I could have been watching kdrama.