Not Quite What I Expected

Last night I made a meal that didn't turn out quite how I expected. But I may have gone overboard with my new toys.

I had an eggplant from my spud's order. So I wanted to use that. I gave Cakewalk the option of ratatouille or eggplant lasagna and he chose the latter. I had seen a recipe that used eggplant as the lasagna noodle to make basically a casserole of veggies and cheese. Sounded good.

I used my food processor to slice the eggplant. Yes, my food processor is AWESOME and can even slice vegetables to various thicknesses. But I probably shouldn't have done that, because it produced an overwhelming number of eggplant slices.

I also used the processor to chop carrots, herbs and peppers. Then I added ricotta and an egg and blended it all. When I took the lid off it slipped out of my hand (have I mentioned I'm a VERY messy cook???) and flew across the counter. I got orange colored ricotta stuff all over the place. Luckily JPC licked up what hit the floor (it's useful to have 2 dogs sometimes) so I didn't have as much to clean up.

After I cleaned and got my wits about me, I continued making my "lasagna" concoction. I layered organic pasta sauce (it's lower in calories and has less artificial junk in it), then eggplant, then ricotta, then chopped roasted red peppers, then shredded mozzarella then repeated until I ran out of stuff.

In hindsight, I used way too many eggplant slices. They ended up a little funky tasting since they couldn't cook properly. Also, the whole dish was liquidy....probably because there wasn't any pasta to soak up the moisture. Or possibly because I was trying to rush and didn't drain the peppers like I should have. Oh well.

Was it great? No. Am I going to share the exact recipe? No. Was it aweful? No. It was actually kinda ok. And Cakewalk even ate 2 helpings.

I can't always make spectacular dinners. But I can help you avoid the same pitfalls and mistakes I make.

So here is my tip for the day:

When cooking eggplant for a dish like this lasagna or eggplant parmesan (which IS a meal I know how to make well), you need to salt it. Slice the eggplant. Then lay one slice on a paper towel and sprinkle it was a tad of salt. Then lay another slice on top and salt it, and so on until you have a tower of eggplant. Then place another paper towel on top. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or so. This will provide a much more tender product. If you are making ratatouille (another dish I make well and might make soon), there is no need for this step because you will be stewing the eggplant for a long period of time.

Eggplant can be super tasty if prepared properly. If you had it and it was chewy or tough, it wasn't done well.