Of all the dishes I regularly produce, this is perhaps the one most resembling lasagne. Why don't I do lasagne? Well, first of all, the pasta for lasagne is often made with eggs, which I try to avoid (I don't mean I have a general aversion to eggs, just that I try to avoid eating them. I don't have any problem walking past them at the bazaar or being in the same room as one and I think they look quite picturesque in birds' nests). The second thing about lasagne pasta is that several times, when I have found a box of imported egg-free stuff in some relatively far-flung corner of the world (far-flung relative to Italy that is, given our present context) and bought it, it has turned out to be both expensive (a quality evident at the time of purchase) and more akin to a jigsaw without a picture (a quality only discovered once I got home and opened the box).
All things considered, I find it easier to use whatever pasta is to hand and the result is usually good. The ingredients can vary depending on what's available. This is more a suggestion, though if you follow the recipe to the letter, you won't be disappointed.
Ingredients
1 kg of pasta
2 or 3 aubergines
2 or 3 courgettes
1 onion
1 pepper (red or green)
2 cloves of garlic
About 6 tomatoes
600 cl of milk
1 and a half dessertspoons of flour
A knob of butter or margarine
100-120g of hard cheese
A few pumpkin seeds
Salt
Olive oil
1 or 2 cups of water
Basil
Oregano
There are four main parts to this recipe: cooking the pasta, making a tomato sauce, making a cheese sauce and frying the aubergines and courgettes. Cooking pasta should be easy but if you think you might have problems, click here for some advice.
For the tomato sauce, fry finely chopped onion and pepper in a little olive oil for a few minutes before adding crushed or chopped garlic followed by chopped tomatoes (reserve one tomato for garnish). Simmer the sauce for five or ten minutes then add some basil, oregano and salt.
If you're not sure how to do cheese sauce, go to the white sauce page and you'll find out all you need to know. Reserve a little grated cheese for topping.
To prepare the aubergines and courgettes, first slice the courgettes (about 1 cm thick) then fry them in a little oil until they begin to brown. Repeat the procedure with the aubergines, perhaps slicing them a little thicker. Try to use just a little oil for this as you'll already have used oil in your tomato and cheese sauces.
Take a large shallow oven dish and grease it lightly. Put a
thin layer of pasta on the bottom, followed by a layer of aubergine slices.
Repeat the layer of pasta followed by courgette slices. Carry on doing this
until you've used up all the vegetables. If there is too much pasta, don't try
to jam it all in, you can use it later for something else. Spread the tomato
sauce over everything, then the cheese sauce. Make a hole in the middle with
a knife and pour in some water. Decorate the top of your dish with grated cheese,
then slices of tomato and finish off with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds. Put
the dish on the middle shelf of a very hot oven and turn the heat down to medium
after ten or fifteen minutes. Bake for a further half hour. When ready, the
dish will, of course, be scalding hot so remove it from the oven and leave to
cool for fifteen minutes before serving.
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