Serves 6 to 8 persons
I have been making this dish for several years and it's a winner always. People will ask you for the recipe.
ingredients
3 big 1 lb.shiny eggplants with a very green hat, peeled and sliced 1/4"
1 lime halved
2 teaspoons salt (see note 1.)
½ cup olive oil
2 pounds red tomates cut in cubes
1 can cubed peeled tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 garlic cloves thinly minced or through the garlic press
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound grated mozzarella cheese (see note 2.)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
Rub each eggplant slice with a little squeeze of lime and then sprinkle them with a little salt. Place them standing one next to the other in a plastic colander so that the excess water drains into a bowl.
Preheat a pan, add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add the pressed garlic, stir and let the fragrance , add the cubed tomatoes with a little salt, let them cook for a minute then add the canned tomatos and the tomato paste, add a little water to the can to wash the
Reduce heat to medium low and let them simmer for about half hour or until the juices have been reduced to a thick sauce.
While the tomato sauce is on process, begin to fry the eggplant slices in a hot non-stick pan using 1/4 of a cup of the olive oil (eggplant absorbs all the oil you give them) by placing it in a little bowl and using a silicone brush and brushing the pan with oil.
If you can use two pans at the same time, this will speed up the process.
Place as many slices as you can fit in the pan side by side and as soon as they are golden brown a bit, turn them to the other side. Stack them on a plate.
Have all the ingredients ready in front of the platter you are going to use for the oven; tomato sauce, golden eggplant slices, shredded mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese and olive oil.
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Sprinkle the bottom of the serving ovenproof dish with the remaining olive oil and start to layer the lasagna starting by a little tomato sauce then a layer of eggplant slices, a layer of mozzarella, a layer of tomato sauce and so on until all the ingredients are used. Cover it all with the cup of Parmesan cheese and bake the lasagna for about 30 minutes or until it's golden brown.
Note 1. Salt; do not over salt, remember you salted the eggplants to remove some water and please do not wash them before using them. The cheeses also bring their own salt, so do not add too much salt to the tomato sauce!
Note 2. For the mozzarella cheese; try grating the mozzarella cheese yourself, the commercial ones come with an anticaking agent or if it has been standing in the fridge for sometime, it will not melt well.