How this recipe came about is that I had some things I needed to use up. An eggplant, because I wanted to make the eggplant rollatini recipe from a cookbook I bought in Sicily. Half a tub of ricotta, because I made whipped ricotta for a charcuterie board. I have so many jars of tomato puree from my mother-in-law that I’m sure I’m set for at least the next six months. And, half-finished wedges of parmesan and pecorino.
My first thought was to make the rollatini recipe I was eying, with a side of pasta, but it wasn’t exactly what I was in the mood for. After consulting with the Dude, whose favorite food after pierogi is lasagna, and flipping through the book some more, I decided to kind of meld two ideas together and did an eggplant parmigiana lasagna.
I didn’t have any mozzarella, so I opted for a béchamel sauce that I knew would add some creaminess. (See? Experience!) I sliced the eggplant about a quarter of an inch thin and soaked it in salted water for a few hours to brine it. I’m not a fan of ricotta in lasagna because of how it cooks up, so I added an egg, a hefty pinch of salt, grated garlic, and pinches of parsley, oregano, and basil and mixed it until it was quite loose and smelled, quite frankly, divine.
My sauce is always simple because it’s how I was taught. I usually cook it all afternoon, but I’ve learned that sometimes the bright acidity of a barely cooked but well-seasoned tomato sauce is needed. And the sauce in a lasagna is cooked twice, once in the pot, and again in the oven, so the less it’s cooked the better. I find that using a sauce that’s been simmering all afternoon turns kind of muddled and heavy after baking in a lasagna, so it’s best left for a pile of pasta.
When it comes time assembly, I don’t follow any rules or anything, I just make sure for every level of pasta there’s a bit of everything. This made two small trays of lasagna, and my no boil noodles took up the whole dish, instead of having to finagle pieces of pasta into layers.
Recipe + Method
Ingredients
Eggplant + Pasta (see note)
1 eggplant, sliced and soaked in salt water for an hour
olive oil
a few garlic cloves, smashed
lasagna sheets, used according to package directions
Marinara
olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3-5 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
around 600ml of tomato puree
fresh basil leaves (see note)
salt + pepper to taste
Ricotta
around half a container of ricotta
an egg
garlic clove, grated
a pinch each of dried parsley, oregano, and basil
salt + pepper to taste
Béchamel (see note)
a knob of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
milk, about 1.5 cups
pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
Notes
– Soaking the eggplant in the water, especially when you’re going to fry it, is insurance against soggy, oily eggplant. The water should be as salty as the water you cook pasta in. And if you’re cooking pasta in plain water, please stop eating bland pasta.
– Your oil will splatter if the eggplant is even a little damp, so make sure it’s dry, but it should sizzle when you put it in the pan.
– My basil leaves were dried whole, and I love basil so I threw in a generous pinch.
– If you have mozzarella, feel free to use it!
Method
Eggplant
Slice and soak the eggplant in salted water for at least an hour. Drain and pat dry. Heat olive oil and a few peeled and smashed garlic cloves over medium-high heat until shimmering. Fry eggplant until golden brown. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Set aside.
Sauce
Sweat onion in olive oil with a generous pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. When the onions are translucent, add garlic. Don’t let anything brown or burn. Add the tomato puree and basil leaves. Simmer for half an hour.
Ricotta
There’s really no method here; I put everything into a bowl and mixed and it was kind of soupy. I wasn’t looking for anything thick; it should be spreadable and garlicky.
Béchamel
Melt the butter until it’s foamy, and add your flour. I like to use a whisk. Let it cook until it turns a pale yellow and doesn’t smell like raw flour anymore. Slowly stream in milk, stirring continuously so there are no lumps. Stir frequently so the flour and milk don’t scald on the bottom of the pan, and when it’s just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, take it off the heat. Add a pinch of nutmeg and salt to taste, and you’re done.
Assembly
I didn’t pay attention to my layering; I just went with whatever pattern I felt like, and I’m 100 percent positive it wasn’t consistent. Anway, I like to mix the sauce and the béchamel together, so I did that in the bottom of the baking dish. Then a pasta sheet, then sauce, then eggplant, then grated cheese, then ricotta, then béchamel, then pasta, and repeat. Or however you feel you want to do the layers.
Jess Jeziorowski 
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