(Article courtesy: Gerry Delval)

Chef Gérard’s Eggplant Lasagna

Since it is still not time yet for the Bons Vivants group to resume its activities, as the group organizer, I managed to convince Chef Gérard, the renown but reclusive French chef, in selecting one of his world famous recipes to share with us to enjoy during the fall and winter seasons.  I like Chef Gérard’s recipes over those by Jacques Pépin, Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver.  His are easy to make in a household kitchen by a regular guy like me. 

This one is a classic tasty dish – a lasagna – but with a twist in that it is vegetarian.  You see, about one year ago, my wife lost interest in eating meat and so we refocused our menus on fish, seafood and vegetables.  In fact some of our meals are actually vegetarian or even vegan.  So, Chef Gérard’s eggplant lasagna hits the spot in our household.  This lasagna does not taste like meat of course, but it is, as Chef Gérard likes to proudly say, smacking his lips with thumb and index, “deliziosa”.

This is quite an easy recipe to make but because there is baking involved, you will need to start about one hour and a half before mealtime.  Almost all eggplant lasagna recipes call for pan-frying slices of eggplant which tends to splatter oil everywhere and the end product doesn’t look like lasagna.  But in Chef Gérard’s superb recipe, you dice the eggplant in order to simulate a ground beef appearance and texture and there is zero splatter.  The recipe below will give 6 servings.  The uneaten portions will keep very well for later consumption when refrigerated.  We transfer them to glass food saver containers with sealed tops – never use plastic containers.

What you’ll need:

(for 6 servings)

– a 25 cm x 30 cm baking dish with cover;

– a very sharp chef’s knife;

– a cutting board;

– a large non-stick frying pan;

– oven-ready egg pasta lasagna sheets;

– 800-900 g of eggplants;

– 500 g of shredded mozzarella cheese;

– grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle;

– 1 – 650-700 ml jar of your favourite tomato sauce – I use the tomato and roasted garlic;

– breadcrumbs, like Panko, to sprinkle;

– 2-3 tbsp of Italian spice;

– olive oil – nothing else will do;

– salt and pepper to taste. 

Getting to work:

1. Preheat the oven on bake at 200 degrees Celsius, or 180 for convection bake. 
2. Spread a small amount of the tomato sauce in the baking dish and don’t forget to do the sides too. 
3. Dice the eggplant in the smallest pieces that you can dice.  The smaller they are, the better the end result.  I cut the eggplant in thin (5 mm or less) slices, then cut the slices into strips and finally the strips into tiny cubes. 
4. Heat the frying pan on medium-high and add 2-3 tbsp of olive oil.
5. Add all of the eggplant, stir immediately to coat the dice with the olive oil.  Eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so don’t be afraid to add more oil as you stir but add it progressively, you don’t want to drown it.
6. Cook the eggplant, stirring often, until it is soft.  You may need to moderate the burner heat.
7. Add the tomato sauce, Italian spice and salt and pepper to your taste.  Stir thoroughly.
8. Sprinkle some bread crumbs – start with 1 tbsp – to thicken and stir thoroughly.  Repeat until you get a texture that looks like a ground beef preparation and that you like.  I don’t like mine to be runny.
9. Place one layer of pasta sheets in the baking dish.  Cut off the corners to get a full coverage.
10. Cover the pasta with half of the eggplant filling and smooth it out evenly.
11. Cover the eggplant filling with half of the mozzarella and sprinkle some Parmesan to taste to add a bit of zing.
12. Place a second layer of pasta sheets and repeat the eggplant and cheese layering.
13. Cover the dish and place it in the preheated oven.
14. Bake for 60 minutes.
15. Remove the dish from the oven, remove the cover and let it stand for 15 minutes.
16. Using a plastic spatula, cut into 6 pieces.
17. Serve with a slice of garlic toast.  You can also accompany this with a small Caesar salad.
18. Chef Gérard says that you should pair with a full-bodied Italian red wine.  He recommends Sangiovese, Chianti, Valpolicella or Ripasso.

Buon appetito.

PS – If you are going to serve this for guests, you can actually prepare the sauce the day before and keep it in the refrigerator (in a sealed glass container) and heat it in the microwave oven before layering.  Just remember to save a small amount of the tomato sauce to spread in your baking dish.  In a pinch, any other tomato sauce including thinned tomato paste or even rubbing the dish with a butter brick will do.

For future newsletters, I will endeavour to ask Chef Gérard if he would be so kind as to provide some of his other brilliant recipes that I could share with you.  But like dealing with all “artistes”, one has to know how and when to ask.  In any event, if you have any requests, please write to the Editor who will pass your request on to me.

Cheers,

Gerry Delval