Eggplant Lasagna

My kids will tolerate eggplant.  They don't love it and you certainly won't hear them begging for it, but they will eat a piece or two if properly presented.  The is problem I love eggplant and am always looking for ways to have it without having a lot of "whine" with it.  And while I don't like hiding food and tricking them it is necessary to be creative at times.

I was watching Food Network one Saturday morning and Rachel Ray was making an eggplant lasagna, but she wasn't making it using thinly sliced eggplant.  She was making it with baked and pureed eggplant.  It was one of those moments duh moments for me, how had this never occurred to me.  Pureed eggplant and ricotta cheese have a very similar consistency.  Mix them together and you can easily fool even those with the biggest aversion to this yummy, yet under appreciated veggie.

Eggplant Lasagna (ziplist)

• 
  

  Ingredients 

  • 1 large eggplant
  • 5-6 large tomatoes, sliced
  • 1/2 cup basil
  • 2 cloves roasted garlic
  • 2 pints ricotta
  • 1 cup Parmigiana-Reggiano
  • 1 egg
  • 24 oz fresh or jarred marinara sauce
  • 1 box lasagna noodles (prepared to boxed instructions)
  • 3 cups shredded mozzarella
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

• Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Slice eggplant in half lengthwise. Brush each side with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on baking sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes or until soft.
3. Place tomato slice on baking sheet lightly drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven to cool, set aside.
4. Once eggplant has cooled slightly scoop out fleshy inside. Place in bowl of food processor with basil and garlic. Pulse 3-4 times to puree. Add egg, ricotta and 1/2 cup Parmigiana cheeses, salt and pepper to taste. Pulse an additional 3-4 times.
5. In a 13x9 baking pan, pour in a 1/4 of the sauce. Add a layer of noodles, a layer of the ricotta cheese eggplant mixture, and a layer of tomatoes. Top the four layers with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layering process 2 times. Finish with a layer of sauce topped with generous topping of mozzarella cheese and remaining Parmigiana.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until cheese has melted. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!

Fruit Salsa

It's that time of year where fruits are ripening and coming in faster than we can eat them.   We aren't as overloaded with fruits from our current CSA as we were in previous years with our other provider, but we are still having trouble keeping, so I have to come up with ways to use it up before it goes bad.  I usually think of fruit as a side with breakfast or lunch, as a great snack or perfect for desserts, but I usually don't use it when cooking dinner.  So this summer I am challenging myself to incorporate more fruit in our main meal, and so far it has been a fun challenge. 
Last week I had small amounts of cherries and blueberries that needed to be used.  So, I broke out the cherry chopper and made a lovely berry salsa to put on top of our grilled fish.  This isn't a very adventuresome way to incorporate fruits into a meal, it is a basic recipe.  What's good about it is you can use whatever fruits you have on hand and use it top whatever protein you have on hand - fish, chicken, pork - they are all good.

The recipe below is based on what I had on hand, but is easily altered based on what is available and personal preference.

Berry Salsa
1/2 c. Cherries, pitted and roughly chopped
1/2 c. Blueberries
1/4 c. Diced Red Onion
1 Tbs. Finely diced Jalapeno
1 tsp. Rice Vinegar
Juice from 1/2 lime

Mix all ingredients together.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Let rest about 20 minutes before serving.

CSA Week 1 -

We received our first  CSA boxes from Great Country  Farms and it was beautiful.  I am used to our produce delivery from Washington Green Grocer, which is always organic, fresh and filled with a wonderful assortment of fruits and vegetables.  Since WGC gets their produce from a variety of sources we were able to get an assortment of items and have some choice, to a limited extent, over what we would get.  With a CSA you get what you get and this is part of the reason I was always a little hesitant to join one.  At this point I am not able to depend on them as our sole source of produce, but that is ok because it is farmer's market season and we are lucky enough to have great markets throughout the week.

The first week we received strawberries, garlic scape, kale, lettuce, spring onions, asparagus and a small basil plant, which was a great surprise.

The basil plant went right into the herb garden, where it is thriving.  The strawberries went right into my kids' bellies.  They didn't even save me one, I had to eat the little bits leftover near the stem, not something I would do on ordinary strawberries, but these were so fresh it was worth it.  I roasted the asparagus with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and served it as a side, it was so incredibly fresh it needed very little done to it. I'm not a big fan of lettuce and was certain this would be the one item still in the fridge at the end of the week, but I am happy to report that I did use it all up by putting it on sandwiches and making a small salad.  The green onions were thrown in to my small salad and pretty much every other dish I made this week, again they really were much tastier than green onions you would pick up at the store.

The garlic scape was my challenge for the week.  At first I didn't think I had even received it.  I was looking for something that resembled garlic, but it turns out that scape is a beautiful green curly Q that resembles the top of a green onion.  After some searching around I decided to make garlic scape pesto, I was tempted by a white bean and scape dip, but went with the pest since my family needed dinner and probably wouldn't be happy with just dip. 

The pesto was wonderful.  Definitely garlicky, but not over the top.  I tossed it with pasta and grilled chicken, one of our favorite summer meals, and it was a nice change from the usual basil pesto.  

Garlic Scape Pesto

10 (approximately) Garlic Scapes chopped

1/4 c. Walnuts, lightly roasted

1/2 (approximately) Olive Oil

1/4 c. Grated Parmigiano cheese 

In a food processor combine garlic scapes and walnuts.  Blend until smooth and combined.  With the processor still running slowly add the olive oil forming a paste.  Scoop pesto into mixing bowl, gently mix in cheese.

Garlic Pesto Pasta and Chicken

1 1lb Box Penne Pasta

2 c. Chicken, cooked cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 c. Garlic Scape Pesto

Cook pasta following directions on box.  Strain pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water.  Place pasta in serving bowl, add chicken and pesto.  Stir to combine adding pasta water as needed to help coat pasta and chicken.