Ratatouille Lasagne

This was a fun experiment. It's ratatouille done up lasagne style. Instead of noodles, I used eggplant and layered it with large chunks of courgette (zucchini), a chunky tomato sauce with red peppers, leek, and garlic, and a pine nut "cheese" filling. 

I sliced the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices, and they worked like noodles would...except they released a lot of water while baking. Next time, I will salt the eggplant first to leach out some of the liquid and also make my tomato sauce a little thicker to reduce the amount of water.

For the sauce, I sauteed garlic, leek, red onion, and red peppers, with some Greek oregano, and red chili flakes...then tossed in the tomatoes and let it simmer. Thyme may be more traditional, but I went with oregano...let's face it, you couldn't really go too far wrong with any Mediterranean herb in this.

The pine nut "cheese" was really good...I usually use tofu as the base for these types of fillings, but not anymore...I really liked the way this filling turned out. I followed this recipe for  Lemon Pignoli Ricotta. You'll have to scroll down on the page a little to see the recipe.

Happy Saturday!

Roseann LaPonte

Rosanne Tobin