Veggie lasagna

This is a somewhat complicated dish, because you precook every ingredient, and then you layer them together and bake. The ingredients I used:

• pasta dough, rolled and cut into lasagna
• sautéed eggplant
• sautéed carrots
• sautéed onion or shallot
• marinara sauce
• fresh tomato
• fresh green pepper
  

Any other vegetable will work too. The tender ones like spinach, raw, blanched or steamed, the more "robust" like zucchini or mushrooms, sautéed in a bit of olive oil. You can use boiled, steamed or sautéed broccoli or cauliflower too, just chop the flowers to smaller pieces. Anyway, these were all I had. And now for the details.

Make a standard pasta dough with two cups of flour, salt, two to three eggs and, if necessary, water or extra flour. Knead for around ten minutes, and refrigerate in plastic wrap or ziplock bag, for at least half an hour. It holds very nicely in the freezer for unspecified amounts of time (I've tried up to a month with no problem), so you can make more for future batches. While you're waiting, peel a few carrots and slice them finely, lengthwise (like for stir-fry). Also slice a big eggplant (or two smaller ones) in half-inch slices or thinner, sprinkle with salt, and let them sit in a strainer. Be careful, the eggplant will ooze a black, bitter liquid.

After the dough is in the fridge for at least half an hour it'll be more elastic and smooth. Separate it into two or three pieces depending on how big a rolling surface you have. Roll each thin, like for other pasta, until you can see light through it. It takes a few minutes, because it's elastic and will partly shrink back after you roll it. But, it's a nice exercise. If you have a pasta rolling machine, either electric or hand-driven, it will be easier. Cut each leaf of dough into large rectangle pieces, and sprinkle them with flour to avoid them sticking together. Bring a pot of water to boil, salt and drop them in a few at a time, for 4-5 minutes, or 3-4 minutes if you want them more al dente. Take them out and put them in cold water to avoid them sticking while the rest are cooked. Once you're done, and they're in cold water and have all cooled down, you can drain the cold water, they won't stick much from now on. Alternatively, if you have a lot of table real-estate, you can layer them on the table to cool off without touching each other, so there's no need for cold water.

The next step is a simple marinara sauce, for layering. Chop a shallot and sauté for a few minutes with a spoon of olive oil, over low heat, until it softens. Add tomato sauce or purée (diluted with water if necessary), salt, pepper, a couple of bay leaves, a pinch of sugar and if you want a pinch of oregano or thyme. If you have any leftover, you can save it in a jar in the fridge for a couple of days for spaghetti. Let it simmer for five to ten minutes and set aside.

By now the eggplants will be "de-bittered", so wash the salt off and let them dry for a couple of minutes. They'll still be salty, so if you want to add parmesan to the lasagna you might want to soak them for a few minutes to get rid of even more salt. Set a non-stick pan over medium-high flame, and place a bit of olive oil in a plate, next to it. Briefly dip each eggplant slice in the olive oil, both sides, and then put in the hot pan. One layer at a time. Don't fry them in olive oil, because they absorb too much, and then spit it out in the oven, you want the lasagna to be light, not too oily. Then fry the carrots in batches, in a spoon of olive oil like you would for stir-fry. If you are soaking the extra salt out of the eggplants, start with the carrots. I just washed them briefly, and didn't use salt on anything else, except the tomato sauce. It evened out.

OK, now all the ingredients are there, you just need to layer them. Get an oven pan (I used a pyrex glass one), start with a couple of spoons of tomato sauce at the bottom to prevent sticking, and layer lasagna and vegetables alternatively. Don't forget to spoon a bit of sauce in between every layer.

Finish with a layer of thin fresh tomato and pepper slices, sprinkle with bread crumbs and drops of olive oil. You can use parmesan on top, but a couple of my guests didn't like cheese. The bread crumbs soak the olive oil and taste good too.

Cook for 20 to 30 minutes in a medium hot oven, and serve. They taste very good the next day too. The total time for preparation took a bit over an hour, with some overlapping time between making sauce and sautéing the vegetables. It's a light, elegant, summer dish, nice for dinner because it's fulfilling and still light. The meat version would have been too heavy for a summer dinner I think, especially among other meat dishes.