Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for toppingor some other hard Italian cheese
½lbTomato sauce
Pasta
1lbEggplantsliced
1tablespoonSalt
Layering
9ozRicotta cheese
4ozMozzarella cheesesliced or grated
1tablespoonOregano
1tablespoonBasil
Instructions
Beginner
Pasta
Cut the eggplants up to about 0.08" / 2mm thick slices.
Add salt and place them into a bowl for at least 10 minutes.
Place the eggplant slices into a greased or parchment papered baking tray so they don't much cover each other.
Put them into a 400°F / 200°C preheated oven for about 10 minutes until they get a bit roasted here and there. Depending on the availability of baking sheets and oven capacity we may need to do several batches.
Sauce
At the same time we are processing the eggplants pour some oil into a frying pan and saute the diced onion until it gets a glassy / translucent look for about 5 - 10 minutes.
Add the ground meat and brown it.
Add the tomato sauce and cook it until the tomato sauce water content reduced about at least a quarter. The whole process should take about 30 minutes.
Assembly
Once the sauce is done, divide it into two parts and spread one half onto the bottom of a casserole dish. With more ingredients we can make more layers like in our keto cabbage lasagna or zucchini lasagna.
Place a layer of eggplants on top.
Mix basil with oregano and ricotta then spread half of it with half of sliced or grated mozzarella on top.
If we forgot to mix the basil and oregano with the ricotta, just sprinkle it on top and start spreading the other half of the sauce on top.
Repeat the layering of sauce, eggplant and cheese.
Place the lasagna under the broiler on maximum temperature on the top shelf until golden brown spots start to appear on the mozzarella for about 10 minutes then it's ready to be served.
Advanced
Sauce
Render fat out from bacon, pancetta or any other type of pork fat that we can use as lardon. We can substitute it with a tablespoon of fat or cooking oil, as well. No harm would be done. Add onion, carrot and celery then saute with the bacon on high heat for about 5 minutes until the onion gets a slight translucent/glassy look.
Add the ground meat. Mix it well with the vegetables then cook it for 10-15 minutes while stirring it often until all the bigger chunks fall into smaller pieces. At this point the beef should lose all its pinkness and browned properly.
Add the water or wine, tomatoes, salt, black pepper and milk. Mix it well together, put the lid on and simmer it for 4 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally.
For more detailed instructions for the filling, check out how to make Bolognese sauce a.k.a Ragu. If our patience is wearing thin then use pureed tomato and cook it only for about 30 minutes before getting it ready for layering.
Pasta
While the sauce is cooking cut the eggplants to about 0.08" / 2mm thick slices then dry brine them for at least 10 minutes. Place the slices into a greased or parchment papered baking tray so they don't much cover each other.
Put them into a 400°F / 200°C preheated oven for about 10 minutes until they get a bit roasted here and there. Depending on the availability of baking sheets and oven capacity we may need to do several batches.
Assembly
Once the sauce is done divide it into two parts and spread one half onto the bottom of a casserole dish. With more ingredients we can make more layers like in our keto cabbage lasagna or zucchini lasagna.
Place a layer of eggplants on top.
Mix basil with oregano and ricotta then spread half of it with half of sliced or grated mozzarella on top. We can also just simply sprinkle the herbs on top of the cheese. Repeat the layering.
Place the lasagna under the broiler on maximum temperature on the top shelf until golden brown spots start to appear on the mozzarella for about 10 minutes.