Lasagna with eggplant. Vegetarian lasagna with eggplant and béchamel sauce - photo recipe How to cook vegetarian lasagna with eggplant - recipe with step-by-step photos

Today I propose to prepare a classic dish of Italian cuisine - lasagna with eggplant. Eggplant lasagna is a simple and easy-to-prepare alternative to traditional lasagna with minced meat and béchamel sauce.

The spicy and juicy eggplant sauce in this version of the dish serves as both a substitute for both meat and bechamel sauce. It turns out not only tasty and nutritious, but also juicy enough so that the dough does not turn out dry. Which means less work in the kitchen and more fun! Vegetable lasagna with eggplant and tomatoes contains fewer ingredients, cooks faster and is lighter. In general, a very pleasant dish in all respects! Try it!

Prepare your ingredients.

This version of the dish is loosely based on Jamie Oliver's recipe, with minor modifications: instead of fresh thyme and basil, I use dried herbs. I also add 1-2 pinches of sugar (I always do this when I prepare tomato-based sauces).

Cut off the stems and prick the eggplants often with a fork. Steam the eggplants for 10-15 minutes until soft.

Check readiness by piercing the eggplants with a fork. If the fork goes in easily and the eggplants are soft, they’re done.

Cool the eggplants slightly (to avoid burning your hands), then cut them in half and scoop out the flesh. Chop the eggplant pulp with a knife until smooth.

Also finely chop the onions, garlic and tomatoes. To prepare lasagna, you can use both fresh and canned tomatoes in their own juice.

Heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onion and, stirring, fry it for a few minutes until golden brown.

When the onions are browned, add eggplant pulp, garlic, fresh or dried herbs - basil and thyme, and a little hot red pepper to taste.

Stirring, fry the eggplants for 10 minutes over low heat.

Then add the chopped tomatoes and vinegar and fry the mixture over low heat for another 15-20 minutes until thickened.

Turn off the heat, taste the eggplant and add ground black pepper, salt, sugar and spices to taste.

Prepare lasagna sheets according to package instructions. Boil the dried leaves until half cooked. To do this, place the sheets in boiling water, add a few pinches of salt and 1 tsp. vegetable oil. Oil added to water will give the sheets elasticity, and they will not break during the cooking process.

Cook the sheets for 3-4 minutes and then immediately place them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Cool the sheets for 1-2 minutes, then remove from the water and dry.

Place a layer of eggplant sauce in a baking dish.

Add a layer of cheese.

And lasagne sheets.

Repeat layers. Sprinkle the final layer generously with grated cheese. Place the pan in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and bake the lasagna for 30-35 minutes until the cheese is browned and the filling begins to gurgle and bubble.

I bake lasagna for 15 minutes at 200 degrees, and then, when the cheese is browned, reduce the temperature to 180 degrees, cover the pan with foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

Vegetable lasagna with eggplant and tomatoes is ready! Bon appetit!

Cut the eggplants into circles, add salt and leave for 30 minutes. Rinse with water, dry with a paper towel. Drizzle with olive oil and grill or fry. Place on a napkin to absorb excess oil.

Fry the minced meat quickly over high heat. Add finely chopped onion, rosemary, wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for another 15 minutes, at the end add salt and pepper, and add Italian herbs.

Boil 2-3 lasagna sheets in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, rinse with cold water, cut crosswise into two parts (or according to the size of the molds).

For the cheese sauce: add flour to milk and mix well so that there are no lumps. Add butter and heat over low heat, stirring, until thickened. Sprinkle with grated cheese, mix well and remove from heat. Grease square molds with butter, place a sheet of dough on the bottom, and pour cheese sauce over them.

Place a layer of eggplant, a layer of minced meat with tomatoes, and a layer of dough on the sauce. Repeat until the mold is filled. Finish with a layer of dough, top with cheese sauce, sprinkle with grated Parmesan and rosemary. Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Cherry tomatoes 16 pcs.

Mozzarella cheese 100-120 g

Parmesan cheese 4 tbsp. l.

Olive oil 3 tbsp. l.

Basil to taste

Table salt to taste

Preparation

Vegetarian, that is, lean lasagna, is prepared differently from ours, a little differently. If you want to make a vegan dish, exclude dairy products from its composition, replace cheese with another component, depending on personal preferences and wishes. In this case, the food can be supplemented, for example, with zucchini, zucchini, peppers, potatoes and you will get a completely vegetable dish.

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  We traditionally start cooking by preparing the products that we will need during the cooking process. Place vegetables, both types of cheese, vegetable oil, namely olive oil, basil and salt on the work surface. Let's move on.

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  We thoroughly wash the eggplants under running water, first removing the stem and second edge. Then cut the vegetables into thin slices. Take a frying pan and place it on the stove. After waiting for the container to warm up slightly, pour in a small amount of vegetable oil and then place the blue slices on the surface. Fry the pieces on each side for literally 20 seconds.

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  Now take a baking dish. We place the fried slices on the bottom of the vessel one by one, that is, we form layers.

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  We also rinse small tomatoes under running water. Then we transfer the red vegetables into the blender bowl and grind them at low speed.

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  Spread the resulting tomato puree in a not too thick layer onto the blue molds.

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  Cut the mozzarella cheese into small pieces or strips, and then place the workpiece in a container with the rest of the ingredients.

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  Pour olive oil over this entire dish and add just a little salt.

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  Now we crush it with basil. This addition will make the dish even more flavorful.

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  We pass the second type of cheese through small holes on a grater. Sprinkle chopped grated Parmesan cheese over the overall mixture in the mold.

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  We continue to form layers until the eggplants become the top, and the rest of the products are just the filling. Sprinkle fresh Parmesan cheese on top again. We preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and then send the mold with the workpiece inside. We set the waiting time. 20-25 will be enough for the food to reach full readiness.

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  After the specified time has passed, turn off the oven and carefully remove the aromatic lasagna with eggplants and tomatoes. As you can see, preparing this delicious Italian dish at home was really not that difficult. We hope our step-by-step recipe with photos contributed to your successful cooking. Cut, place the food on plates, serve and enjoy the excellent taste with your household. We wish you bon appetit!

Lasagna with eggplant turns out well and tasty. There is only one sauce - milk bechamel with the addition of fire-roasted eggplant pulp, purchased pasta - lasagna, which does not require preliminary boiling, but is added dry and a little parmesan to sprinkle the finished dish when serving. During the season when eggplants are young, eggplant casserole is prepared simply and very quickly.

By and large, any lasagna is a casserole of mixed layers of pasta, which is called lasagne, filled with stew or in the form of a thick sauce of vegetables, mushrooms, etc. Most often, pasta with meat stew is prepared. This is a labor-intensive dish, as the meat sauce takes a long time to prepare and contains many ingredients. All pasta sheets are also coated with bechamel sauce.

If eggplant lasagna is prepared from store-bought pasta, the whole process comes down to preparing the sauce, placing it in a mold and heat treatment. If you wish, you can make your own pasta from durum wheat flour - you will need a kitchen machine to roll out the dough. Bechamel sauce with eggplant is even easier to prepare than caviar for.

Eggplant lasagna is, first of all, a simple casserole with eggplant, milk sauce and pasta sheets. If desired, you can bake a cheese crust on top of the dish, as in, but cheese is not necessary. As one friend says, Parmesan is not a dogma - use ricotta, mozzarella. I like it when the lasagna is soft and easy to cut even with a fork, and the cheese - you can always sprinkle the finished dish with grated Parmesan.

If the main sauce can be anything, then you can’t do without bechamel. In this recipe we combined vegetable and milk sauces. The eggplant lasagna turned out great.

As a base for the sauce, we took the usual and familiar bechamel - butter, flour and cold milk. Separately, grind the pulp of baked young eggplants. The resulting sauce is somewhat similar to Turkish and was perfect for our dish. Lasagna with eggplant turned out soft and with a very delicate taste.

Lasagna with eggplant. Step by step recipe

Ingredients (2 servings)

• Young eggplants 4 things
• Lasagna pasta 6-7 pcs
• Butter 50 g
• Milk 2 cups
• Wheat flour 1 tbsp. l.
• Grated Parmesan 1 tbsp. l.
• Lemon juice 1 tbsp. l.
• Salt, black pepper, nutmeg, hot pepper spices

1. To ensure that eggplant lasagna has a delicate taste and does not contain hard seeds, you need young eggplants. They still contain seeds, but they are white and soft - they are invisible in the dish. In addition, you need to make sure that the fruits are not rotten, otherwise there will be an aftertaste. Buying good vegetables during the season is not a problem.

   Young eggplants

2. If you decide to make your own pasta, use Italian coarse durum wheat flour, in other words, semolina. The packaging says semola di grano duro. Or you can always buy a package of ready-made dry paste of excellent quality. Usually, a pack contains 20-24 sheets of paste and is enough for several times. I advise you to buy pasta that does not require boiling before placing - subito il forno.

   Pasta lasagna

3. Bake eggplants in any way possible. The best result is obtained by baking the fruits on the burning coals of a barbecue and using a Bulgarian electric oven for peppers and vegetables, chushkopek - lasagna with eggplants will be very aromatic. In the simplest version, a conventional oven will do. Bake the eggplants until the surface is soft and wrinkled. If the fruit can be easily and without resistance pierced with a knife, it is ready.

   Bake the eggplant until the skin is charred.

4. Place the baked eggplants in a saucepan and cover until cool. Then remove the burnt skin with your fingers. Cut the fruit in half lengthwise and remove the seeds if necessary. Chop the pulp very finely with a knife - very small pieces should be felt. Pour 1 tbsp over the pulp. l. lemon juice and stir. This way the flesh will not darken.

   Peel and very finely chop the eggplants

5. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, then add less than 1 tbsp. l. wheat flour and mix. When the fat is mixed with flour, add milk in small portions and mix. This is actually the process of making bechamel. The consistency of the sauce should be like sour cream - slightly runny.

   Prepare bechamel sauce

6. Add all the chopped pulp of the baked eggplant to the sauce and stir. If the sauce is too thick, add a little milk or water. If it is liquid, you can add flour, but it is better to dilute it with water, otherwise it will form lumps. Stir the sauce until smooth.

   Add eggplant pulp to the sauce

7. To make eggplant lasagna with a distinct taste, you should add aromatic spices. Add salt to taste and add ground nutmeg on the tip of a knife. Season with black pepper, preferably freshly ground. And add 1-2 pinches of coarsely ground dry chili. After the sauce boils, taste it. If desired, add more spices and, if the eggplant is bitter, which is almost never the case, you can add a pinch of sugar. Let the sauce simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes.

   Add spices to the sauce and let simmer for a few minutes

8. Eggplant lasagna is baked well in a disposable aluminum mold of a suitable size. The usual size of pasta sheets is 10x20 cm, and there are molds of this size on sale with a volume of about 1 liter. Its main advantage is that it does not need to be washed, it is thrown away. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan with butter. Place 1-1.5 tbsp on the bottom of the mold. l. bechamel sauce with eggplant pulp and distribute evenly. This is necessary so that the eggplant casserole does not burn and does not stick to the bottom.

   Place a little sauce and a lasagna leaf into the pan.

9. Place the first sheet of paste and moisten it a little with water - literally 0.5 tsp. Place the eggplant sauce on top and spread it with a spoon. It would be a good idea to estimate in advance approximately how much sauce is needed for each layer so that there is enough of it. Sequentially add pasta, moistening it with water, and sauce. Thus, the form will be completed. It is advisable to leave 1-1.5 cm of space to the top edge, since the eggplant lasagna will rise when baking.

   Brush the last sheet of paste and place in the oven.

10. Depending on the volume of the mold and the amount of sauce, you will need a different number of pasta leaves. Usually there are 6-7 of them, but no less. Spread the topmost sheet liberally with sauce, even if there is a lot left. If the aluminum container has a removable lid, you can leave it on while the eggplant lasagna heats up. And as soon as steam appears, it must be removed.
11. Place the dish with pasta and eggplant in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. The container is soft and may become deformed - place it in a ceramic or glass plate. The pasta cooks quickly, so you need to notice when the sauce starts to boil, remove the lid and from this moment note the time - about 20 minutes. The pasta is guaranteed to be cooked. Carefully remove the lasagne pan from the oven - the aluminum is very hot.