Eggplant Lasagna
A delicious way to add more veggies to your diet or make gluten-free lasagna!!
Eggplant Lasagna
Category
Main
Cuisine
Italian
Servings
8
One of our favorite eggplant recipes!
Cortney Smith
Ingredients
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1 pound Italian sausage
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1 – 24oz bottle tomato passata or (1) 28oz can diced tomatoes
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2 teaspoons dried basil
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2 teaspoons dried oregano
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½ onion, diced
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1 medium carrot, shredded
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4 garlic cloves, minced
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1 – 16 ounce container ricotta, drained
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¼ cup parmesan, shredded
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1 egg
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1 tablespoon dried parsley
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1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced lengthwise into “noodles”
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2 cups shredded mozzarella
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Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions
Slice eggplant and lay on a baking sheet with rack. Salt liberally and let purge for 1-2 hours, until some of the water releases. Once purged, rinse with water and firmly pat dry.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Strain ricotta to dry.
In a saute pan, brown sausage. Remove and drain, leaving approx. 1 tablespoon oil.
Add onion and carrot and saute over medium until softened. Add garlic and cook until just fragrant. Then add passata, basil, oregano, sausage and reduce down until liquid starts to evaporate and you have a thick sauce.
In a bowl, mix together ricotta, parmesan, egg and parsley.
Place a bit of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Then lay ½ of the sliced eggplant into the baking dish, layering ½ ricotta, ½ sauce and ½ mozzarella. For the second layer put in this order: Eggplant, ricotta, sauce, mozzarella so that you have cheese on the top of the lasagna. (See notes for different layering options for thicker or thinner lasagna).
Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake for additional 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Recipe Note
What is Passata and where do I find it? Passata is pureed and strained tomatoes - and nothing else! You can usually find it at any grocery store. Look for a glass bottle, generally on a top shelf. Can't find passata? Use canned, diced tomatoes instead!
If you would like to make a thicker lasagna (like the photo!) you have two options. Either use a 9x9 pan with the same quantity of ingredients for 6 servings or double the ingredients for a 9x13 pan and make 3 layers! Cook times can increase to 1 hour covered and 15 minutes uncovered.
Tip: Your sauce may look dry or not very saucy. That is OK!! The eggplant will still continue to release some moisture as it cooks and have your sauce too liquidy will make watery lasagna. Remember - in regular lasagna the pasta will soak up some of the sauce as it rests - not so for eggplant!