Quick and Easy Eggplant Lasagna with a Kick
Written by Jaye Yarrow, Four Green Steps.com
No brainers by any other name and my very favorite type of recipe. These are the go to recipes I fall back on over the years not only because they are so quick and easy, but crowd pleasers used for both entertaining and small family dinners. I will be pulling from my vast cache of Quick and Easy recipes. Most don't have pictures of the actual finished dish but will as I start taking some in the future. The one thing I can guarantee you is they are delicious, quick, healthy and a snap to prepare because I am basically lazy, maybe lazy isn't the right word since I work full time, have a family and a 95lb puppy that needs daily exercise so how about time constrained and tired looking for a fast and easy way to put food on the table and being able to stay awake to enjoy it!
Preparation time:
10 minutes or less (for the easy way),
Oven 350, bake for one hour (can be less or more depending if you like the eggplant firmer or softer)
You can do this the easy way or the longer way, easy way, you need three things:
Nice heavy eggplant (fits in two hands and has good heft, how is that for exact ingredients)
Bottle of your favorite salsa
Bag of shredded cheese (can be any type, mozzarella, mix, cheddar, Mexican mix, as long as it is shredded you can throw on whatever is your favorite)
Directions:
Take out Pyrex baking dish, 9 x9 (8 x 8) double (in that case 2 x's the ingredients) or any shape that you like as long as it is deep enough for layering
Wash and slice the eggplant (one if nice and hefty that you can hold in two hands or two if smaller, for a deeper or larger dish you can use more than one eggplant.) pour a little salsa into the bottom of the baking dish, can be square or round whatever is your favorite baking dish
Slice eggplants in uniform sizes around ½ a centimeter, nothing has to be perfect and you may find you like your slices vary a little and that is fine.
Spread a layer of eggplant slices, spoon some salsa on every piece and spread to cover then sprinkle cheese all over, begin again eggplant layer, salsa then cheese, keep doing this until you have ran out of eggplant can be higher than the dish because it bakes right down, finish with salsa and then lots of cheese spread over the whole top and pop in the oven! In about an hour it will have baked down and the cheese will be golden.
***if you like your cheese top to be gooey, then don't put on the final layer of cheese, ten minutes before you are ready to take the Lasagna out of the oven sprinkle the final layer of cheese and be generous!
That is it for the easy way
…and If you have time on your hands then first make the salsa
