Lasagna With Tomato Sauce and Roasted Eggplant

I use 16 oz of ricotta cheese, add an egg, parmigiana cheese and mozzarella cheese and layer a sprinkle of oregano and dot the layer w fresh basil and so forth. I roast the eggplant w evoo first. Before I begin layering. I make my own marinara sauce but if short on time: Rao’s is a great addition!

Substituting a layer of besciamella (béchamel) for a layer of ricotta makes lasagna less heavy. I've added similarly oven-roasted zucchini, red peppers, onions, etc. Over time I've added so many vegetables, my son says I've created "ratatouille lasagna".

I would leave out the two tablespoons of water in the ricotta because it comes out watery. Otherwise, delicious.

A paradigm-shifting fact I learned from comments on another lasagne recipe is that you don’t have to pre-cook regular lasagna noodles as long as they are completely covered in sauce. Really a game changer for me because I hate pre-boiling but I think “no-boil noodles” are gross and gummy. This recipe is lovely and works best with more sauce in any case.

I used heirloom and home grown tomatoes from my garden to make the marinara sauce. It took about 30 minutes to bring the sauce to the desired thickness. I was able to use my homegrown eggplant was well. I had a problem releasing the eggplant from the foil even though I attempted to use enough oil as per one of the reader's suggestions. Froze the lasagna uncooked in a foil line lasagna pan.

The problem of everything sticking to the aluminum foil is easily solved by first wrapping the glass dish with parchment paper then aluminum foil over that.

Disclosure: I haven't baked this yet (I prepped it last night for a dinner party and am going to put it in the oven soon). But I doubled the ricotta mixture, which was wholly necessary. I would have also tripled the sauce, and I don't think the mozzarella is really optional. But I loved the method for roasting the eggplant, and the ricotta mixture tasted great -- the dash of cinnamon is genius!

I doubled the recipe, but, per the notes almost quadrupled the tomato sauce. Used no-boil lasagna noodles, added steamed spinach to the ricotta (fresh from Citarella). Used fresh mozzarella, which was impossible to grate, so just sliced-shredded it. Use plenty of chopped basil. It did not overwhelm. Probably used more Parmesan than specified, but didn’t measure. I baked it in a 9 x 13 x 5 Pyrex dish. Used large eggplants, and peeled them, which made them far easier to slice.

Excellent as is. Used last jar of tomato sauce from last summer’s garden. Eggplant was great, and I can see adding mushrooms as one person commented .

Incredible! Use all fresh basil, mozz and parm if it’s available. I used a lot more ricotta than it called for just to finish all of the container. Added a cup or so of thinly sliced shrooms because I was a little short on eggplant. Totally recommend this recipe.

Having made this recipe twice as written, I would not change it all. Doubling the sauce or ricotta, as some readers suggest, would diminish the roasted eggplant--what I like best about the dish.

Added sautéed mushrooms and onion. Used nutmeg (usually a go-to in my lasagne, meatballs, ...) instead of cinnamon. Pecorino instead of parmesan, another preference for me, and no mozzarella.

Doubled the ricotta mixture and definitely could’ve used more marinara sauce. I added garlic and green peppers and loved it!

"Toss the eggplant in a bowl with the olive oil" didn't work too well. The oil soaked into a few slices of eggplant and the rest were dry. Brush each piece with a pastry brush (both sides) worked much better.