Рецепт Lasagna Without Using Your Noodle.
Now I've made traditional Italian lasagna using noodles; I've made vegetable lasagna, again, using noodles. What happens though when, instead of pasta noodles, vegetables themselves become the noodles? While I did have large zucchinis which I could have sliced lengthwise thinly; I decided to try it out with eggplant; sort of as if lasagna and eggplant parmigiana decided to have a baby.
Eggplant is a spongy type of vegetable; when fried in oil, it will absorb a good deal of the oil. However, I didn't want my lasagna to be a soppy, oily mess and made the decision to oven fry the eggplant slices. If it works for potatoes, why not eggplant, right? By the way, to make it a bit more interesting, I sautéed green bell peppers and grape tomatoes (look like miniature Roma tomatoes) together and made that one of the layers. In my opinion, this addition made the entire dish come together into a delicious perfection; but then again, I'm biased.
- 1 cup Italian flavored
- bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 small green bell pepper
- 1 pint grape tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 (32 oz.) container
- part-skim ricotta cheese
- 1 (8 oz.) package finely
- shredded mozzarella cheese; divided in half
- 3 cups homemade pasta
- sauce
- Preheat oven to 350F;
- spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray, and a 2 and ½ quart baking
- dish.
- Cut ends off the eggplant
- and peel off skin; cut into ¼ inch slices.
- Place bread crumbs onto flat plate; lightly beat eggs and milk together
- in a wide mouth bowl. Dip the eggplant
- slices into the egg mixture, then lightly bread on both sides; place on baking
- sheet. Bake for 5 minutes on one side; turn
- over, bake for another 5 minutes; remove from oven, but keep oven at 350F.
- While eggplant is baking;
- take seeds out of the bell pepper, cut into strips and then dice; cut the
- tomatoes into halves. In a 10 inch
- skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high; add in the bell pepper, tomatoes, salt
- and garlic powder. Sauté for 5 minutes,
- remove from heat.
- In a medium bowl, combine
- ricotta and 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella; if using whole milk ricotta, add
- one egg when mixing to achieve smoothness.
- In the sprayed baking
- dish, spread one cup of sauce on the bottom; place 3 slices of eggplant on
- bottom. Spread half the cheese mixture
- over the eggplant; spread half the vegetable mixture over the cheese. Repeat process: one cup sauce, 3 eggplant,
- half cheese, half vegetables, one cup sauce and remaining eggplant slices. Top the entire casserole with the other half
- of the shredded mozzarella; bake for 30-35 minutes (cheese is melted and sauce
is bubbling up). Remove from oven; let
sit for 15 minutes before serving.
Mary Cokenour