Lasagna (Beef and Eggplant)

Before moving to Australia, my parents always said to me that the moon was bigger overseas. It seems that they are right. The moon looks brighter and larger due to no high-rise buildings around blocking the view. I found the eggplants here are very big as well. The one I made lasagna was nearly 1 kg. It’s a giant eggplant indeed. My daughter is a big fan of eggplants, big or small ones are on the top list of her favourite vegetables. This lasagna was made the other day to ease her cravings. She nearly finished one whole tray by herself. I guess she was very pleased and satisfied.

I used fresh lasagna sheets made by my pasta machine. To make fresh lasagna sheets by scratch is much easier than I thought, just took a bit longer time to get them ready. No need to cook them in water in advance. What I needed was to roll them in the right size, placed in the baking tray with sauce, then that’s it. If you’d like to try this recipe and are too busy to make lasagna sheets from scratch, you might substitute the dried ones bought from supermarkets. I tried San Remo’s Instant Lasagna sheets, needless to pre-cook, the end results were good. Thus, I keep a packet of it in my pantry to back up for a lazy day.

You might’ve noticed that I used soy sauce to marinate the beef, that’s quite a deviant way of cooking an Italian dish. In response to the trend of making crossed-over, fusion cuisine in Hong Kong, I made a little tweak in preparing the beef. The soy sauce acts like an umami enhancer, bringing up the sauce to another tasty level.

Beef and Eggplant Lasagna (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 55 minutes
Yield: serves 5 to 6

Ingredients:

• 3 lasagna sheets (fresh homemade or dried, bought from supermarkets)
• 1, about 900 gm large eggplant (or 2 to 3 small)
• 620 gm beef mince
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2 cans Italian diced tomatoes, each 400 gm
• 1 Tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ground nutmeg, to taste, optional
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
• Mozzarella cheese, to taste, grated
• raw sugar, to taste
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Marinade:

• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp corn flour
• 1 egg
• pepper, to taste

Thickening:

• 2 tsp corn flour
• 2 Tbsp water

Method:

• Mix the beef with the marinade. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180C/356F.
• Heat oil in frying pan. Add onion and sauté over medium-high heat until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.
• Add beef and cook until browned, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon to separate any lumps.
• Pour in the two cans of diced tomatoes with juice. Stir in ketchup, Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle ground nutmeg if desired. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer until the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes, with occasional stirring. Season with sugar, salt and pepper. Remember to taste by yourself, adjust seasonings until satisfied. Add the thickening and cook to preferred consistency. Turn off the heat, stir in the basil leaves. Set aside.
• While cooking the sauce, rinse the eggplant and wipe dry with paper towels. Slice into about 1cm thickness. Brush oil and season with salt on both sides. Bake in the preheated oven, for about 10 minutes. Turn to another side, and bake for another 10 minutes. Set aside.
• Line eggplant slices on the bottom of two baking trays. Spoon about 1/6 of the beef sauce over the eggplant, topped with a lasagna sheet. Repeat layers for both trays, ending up with three layers each. Top with remaining sauce and cheese.
• Bake in the preheated 180C/356F oven, for about 20 minutes. Increase heat to 200C/395F, bake for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is golden. Serve hot.

Notes:

• Eggplants go very well with beef. You can adjust the amount of the eggplant if desired.
• You might like to turn this dish into a vegan one, just skip the beef. Or add more favourite vegetables if you like. If only vegetables are used, the sauce still tastes wonderful with them.
• While baking for the last 10 minutes, don’t leave the lasagna unattended. Watch over the cheese on top as it easily gets burned.
• If there’s any leftover, it can be kept for a few days in fridge, three weeks in a freezer.

Other delicious lasagna recipes:

• Lasagna from Simply Recipes
• Lasagna Tart Recipe from 101 Cookbooks
• Gluten-Free Roasted Vegetable Lasagna Recipe from Gluten-Free Recipes
• Grilled Zucchini "Lasagna" with Italian Sausage, Tomato, and Basil Sauce  from kalyn's ktchen