Eggplant Lasagna

I find frozen spinach to be bitter. So when making lasagna, I will pour the pasta water over fresh spinach to wilt. In this case, I would use the electric kettle to boil water to wilt the spinach in a colander. The spinach also has less water to squeeze out.

Rather than use frozen spinach, which I find tastes like iron, I chop fresh spinach and stir into the ricotta - no blanching or wilting needed. Works well, tastes great and no excess water.

This is very similar to the way my beloved Italian grandma made her eggplant parmigiana. She did bread the eggplant before roasting it and there was no ricotta. But she layered it like a lasagna with very thin layers of eggplant. She passed away at 101 last year.

This is a summer go to for me (thanks to my garden)...I don't pre-bake/roast the eggplant. I slice mine very, very thin (think mandoline), then throw in a bowl, italian seasonings, some OO, then pretty much do the same...layers...and bake for about 45 minutes. Perfect..

Great this time of year is zucchini lasagna; cut 6-8 zucchini into thin slabs with a mandolin, partially dry in a low oven or dehydrator, and layer up your lasagna just like one made with traditional noodles. Incredibly tasty and satisfying, very similar to the original. Plus you get to use up the overflow of zucchini in summertime... my wife's record is 8 in one dish.

For a healthier version: cut out the olive oil, salt, egg and ricotta. Substitute Low fat vegan mozzarella, you don't need to cut eggplant into thick planks and pre cook; just thin slice and cook as described. You can also order online low sodium, no sugar added marinara which most grocery stores don't carry. Be sure to find vegan mozzarella with low saturated fat.

Will try this soon for sure. A tip to make drying the spinach less messy: use a knife to poke holes in the plastic bag containing the thawed spinach, then squeeze it slowly over the sink. Guaranteed to leave less threads of spinach on your hands!

BEWARE - too much salt for my taste. Do not add additional salt to this recipe as the cheese and bottled marinara have enough salt of their own. Otherwise, this is really good. I blanched well drained spinach, sautéed added mushrooms and a lot of garlic to filling.

Do not skip roasting the eggplants. You will not achieve the right texture or depth of flavor without roasting the slices first!

Delicious! But 3 lbs of eggplant was enough for 2 8” x 13” pans so I doubled the other ingredients and now we have even more to enjoy. Made this with less dairy by replacing the ricotta with a block of tofu blended with a couple tablespoons of powdered nutritional yeast. Definitely a keeper!

This is a bit similar to one of my favorite dishes, which my Greek wife is currently baking in the oven for my birthday: papoutsakia (i.e. little shoes). The Greek dish stuffs the eggplant with minced meat and tops it with béchamel.

I love making eggplant lasagna and a real time saver for me is to lightly brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and briefly grill them in a panini press. I find it cooks them perfectly and quickly

I’ve made Eggplant Lasagna by sautéing breaded Eggplant planks. I now use frozen Eggplant cutlets. The Ricotta is mixed as in this recipe but the spinach is separate (2 pkgs) water pressed out completely. I layer as described here but layer of spinach on top of Ricotta. Bake 400 for “watched” 35-40 minutes. Serve with salad and Italian bread.

Good recipe, except for the brushing of the eggplants with oil. You see this a lot, even for air fryer recipes. If you put oil on the food it will fry it, even when you intend to bake or air fry. I brush the food with infused oil AFTER it's cooked, as I am trying to avoid fried food, when oil gets highly heated. Raw oil is healthier, they say.

Simple, straight forward and delicious recipe. Remember to let it rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting.