Vegetarian Eggplant Lasagna with Herbed Garlic Loaf

This lasagna is AMAZING! And I would have never come up with the idea if it wasn't for my lovely Mom who was in town for work again so TJ and I had her over for dinner. Her diet is not only vegetarian but also gluten free, so cooking dinner for her always forces me to think creatively! So instead of making a traditional lasagna I decided to buy a big eggplant that I could slice thinly to replace the lasagna noodles.

And let me tell you, this was a huge hit. I'm not even a big fan of eggplant but I loved this because it not only had so much flavor but also tasted really hearty, the thin slices of eggplant added an almost meaty taste to the dish. It doesn't matter if you're a meat eater, vegetarian, gluten free or carb lover, this is guaranteed to please!

Eggplant Lasagna

• 1 Jar tomato pasta sauce (you'll probably only end up needing around 1-1.5 cups
• 1 Large eggplant (9 thin slices)
• 1 Large zucchini
• 1 Large onion
• 3-4 Garlic cloves
• 6 Cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups fat free ricotta
• 1 Egg
• 1 Large ball of fresh mozzarella cheese (Or a container of 2-3 balls packed in water)
• 1/4 Cup grated parmigiano reggiano
• 2 Teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 Teaspoons salt
• 1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 Teaspoon cracked pepper
• Pince of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed

Herbed Garlic Loaf

• 1 Baguette 
• 3 Tablespoons + 1 Teaspoon olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons chopped basil
• 1-2 Cloves garlic
• 1 Teaspoon salt
•  1/2 Teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

You can start by preparing the ricotta/vegetable mixture that will be in the filling of the lasagna. Dice one large onion and sauté until they start to turn golden, mince and add the garlic as well. Just don't burn them! 

Add the spinach leaves until they are all wilted. 

Grate the zucchini and add it to the sauté pan for just a couple minutes then take it off the heat. Try to drain as much of the water out of this mixture as possible; there will be a lot because of the veggies. You can even press the mixture in a strainer to get out the excess liquid; you don't the lasagna to be soupy! 

Put this vegetable mixture into a large bowl and add the ricotta cheese. 

Stir together this mixture along with the egg and the oregano, salt, red pepper flakes, pepper, and nutmeg. Set this mixture aside for the layers in the lasagna.

Slice the eggplant as thinly as possible; you'll need 9 very thin slices (remember, this is replacing pasta!). This is tricky! For my last three I ended up having to use multiple pieces since I wasn't able to cut straight down. 

You can also shred the mozzarella cheese and set it aside. The mozzarella cheese was really soft so I didn't grate the entire thing, I ended thinly slicing the end of it which looked really nice on the top layer of the lasagna. 

Take out a large 9x13" glass pan and pour a little tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan so the eggplant won't stick. Then layer the bottom with three strips of eggplant (alternate the direction they face so that they fit well). 

Pour half of the ricotta/vegetable mixture in the pan and spread as evenly as possible over the eggplant. 

Cover with 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with 1/3 of the chopped basil and drizzle with some of the tomato sauce. You can add a pinch of the shredded parmigiano reggiano to each layer but save at least half of it for the top layer. 

Repeat these layers so that the first two have the ricotta mixture and the top layer will just be tomato sauce, mozzarella/parmigiano reggiano and basil (so it will be tomato sauce, eggplant slices, ricotta mixture, shredded cheese, basil and tomato sauce; then eggplant slices, ricotta, shredded cheese, basil and tomato sauce; then eggplant slices and then just tomato sauce with mozzarella basil and parmigiano reggiano). 

Pop this baby in the oven for 20-30 minutes until it is bubbly and perfect and your whole house will smell like italian heaven. 

Because I thought TJ and I would be in desperate need of some carbs with a carb-less lasagna I decided to make a side of crusty herbed garlic bread. Just mix together the olive oil, minced garlic and basil and salt and pepper. 

Spread this on both sides of the baguette and pop them in the oven. In fact, once the lasagna is done cooking you can take it out of the oven, raise the heat to 400 degrees and bake the bread for at least 5 minutes.

Pre-oven!