October 5, 2009

Eggplant Lasagna

As promised in my last post, here's my pre-marathon meal. I can't guarantee that it's the best meal in the world, as I had zero appetite on Saturday and only ate it because I knew I had to put something in my body. My stomach was really sensitive all day, as if it knew that it would be spending 5 grueling hours the next day bouncing around the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul being fed nothing more than Powerade, an orange slice, a couple gummy energy blocks and a packet of Gu. The only thing it would readily accept was half of a cupcake that a certain someone brought over along with some lovely flowers.


Because I cannot vouch for the actual quality of this meal I'm posting this recipe more for the idea and the process than to give you actual amounts and exact ingredients. I more or less threw this together with stuff I had on hand, and the recipe is more of the ideal ingredient list rather that what I actually used. For example, I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta because the grocery store was somehow out of ricotta. While cottage cheese is an OK substitute after a quick trip through the food processor, I much prefer ricotta. So feel free to improvise, add, subtract, tweak, or completely ignore this recipe.

Eggplant Lasagna

1 medium-large eggplant
Lasagna noodles
1-1/2 cups ricotta
Tomato sauce
A few handfuls of spinach
About a cup of mozzarella, provolone, or some similar cheese
1/4 cup parmesan, grated


This fairly large eggplant was more than enough to fill my 8"x 8" dish.


Start by slicing the eggplant into about 1/4" slices. I sliced it lengthwise, but you can do it widthwise as well. Sprinkle both sides of the eggplant with salt, and stick it between a couple layers of paper towels for an hour or so.


In the meantime, if you're using cottage cheese run it through the food processor until it's fairly smooth.


I generally mix spinach in with ricotta when making lasagna, and I decided to just toss a few handfuls of spinach into the food processor.


This is what I ended up with. While it kind of looks pretty (or slightly like mint chip ice cream), I would recommend just stirring them together so the flavors still stand on their own instead of completely melding together. I often lack foresight in the kitchen.


After an hour or so rinse the eggplant and pat it try.


Line the bottom of an ovenproof dish wish a little tomato sauce. I only had cans of diced tomatoes, which I heated up with garlic and some oregano. I wish I would have used tomato sauce, though. Smooth sauce makes for better layering, but chunky tomatoes will work in a pinch.


Cover with a layer of lasagna noodles. I started out with no-bake noodles, but I eventually ran out I had to boil a few of the regular kind.


Spread 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. If you're using a really deep dish you could probably squeeze in three layers, in which case you would only use 1/3 of the ricotta per layer. I hope I didn't insult you by doing that math as if you couldn't figure it out yourself. I'm just trying to help here.


Next comes a layer of eggplant.


Top the eggplant with tomato sauce.


And repeat. Once you have a second layer completed, top it off with a final layer of noodles.


Then a generous dose of tomato sauce.


Then the most important part: cheese. For some reason I went with fresh mozzarella. It was fine, but next time I would use grated cheese. I like the crust formed by grated cheese better. You could also get away with using very little cheese. I made a slightly different veggie lasagna a couple weeks ago using only a little freshly grated parmesan on the top, and it was awesome. Before then I thought you needed to load on the cheese to make it really good, but my taste buds and my arteries were pleasantly surprised.


I had leftover everything, so I threw it all into a mini dish to bake and freeze for later. It looks like it could be some country's flag. Or the crest on More Cheese More Chocolate polo shirts for our upcoming MCMC regional blogger convention at Super 8 conference room #4.


Moving right along, bake the lasagna at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the top is bubbly. Let it cool for 5 or 10 minutes before slicing.


I couldn't talk about the marathon without sharing some photos, so here you go! I think this is around mile 10. It was around here that I was thinking how lucky all of my friends were who chose to run the 10 mile instead of the marathon. I'm still trying to figure out why I look so happy in this picture.


Here I am showing off my medal and being very happy to be home. In case you were wondering I finished in 4 hours and 52 minutes, beating my previous time by over 30 minutes and meeting my goal of finishing in under 5 hours. And I am in serious pain today.


And purely for entertainment value, this is a video of me just after crossing the bridge to St. Paul around mile 19. I'm not sure whether I was happier to see Matt or the bottle of ibuprofen in his hand. I couldn't have done it without them.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Kristi said...

Nice job!!! You look amazing.

October 06, 2009  
Blogger Kirsten said...

Thanks, Mrs. James!

October 07, 2009  
Blogger vanillasugarblog said...

Kirsten you won my cookbook giveaway! Congrats!

Let me know what cookbook you would like (see original post to choose) and I will send it right out to you.

Let me know via email: vanillakitchen1@aol.com and make sure to include your mailing address.

Congrats!

October 10, 2009  

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