I did change two things:
I slightly dehydrated the eggplant. This insures it’s not soggy and it removes the eggplant’s bitter juices. I just covered cookie sheets with lots of paper towels and stacked a layer of sliced eggplant covered with kosher salt on each cookie sheet. I covered the tops of eggplant with more paper towels and then stacked all the cookie sheets on top of each other and left them for about an hour. (To help weigh the cookie sheets down, I topped the whole thing with my big utensil holder. It looks ridiculous, but it works!) After about an hour, rinse the salt off the eggplant and you’re good to go!

I am gluten-free, so made my own bread crumbs by toasting/drying out a loaf of Udi’s gluten-free white bread. To add a little flavor that’s in regular bread crumbs, I added some Italian seasonings and Parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs.