Recipe

Naptime Courtship Eggplant and Prosciutto Lasagna – inspired by a recipe from Bon Appetit a while back

Ingredients

  • 1 lb
  • Lasagna noodles (Use the “No Boil” to save yourself valuable time)
    large eggplants, cubed
    2 T. olive oil
    2 T. Kosher salt
    1 ½ c. prosciutto, chopped
  • 2
  • large shallots
    1 t. chopped fresh rosemary
    4 c. whole milk
    1 ½ c. chicken broth
    stick unsalted butter
    2/3 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
    2 c. Gruyere, shredded
    ½ c. grated Parmesan cheese (I used Pecorino-Romano once in a pinch and that tasted fine, too)

    Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

    Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 425. Cut eggplants in 1 ½″ cubes and toss them with oil and salt until evenly coated. Spread eggplant in one even layer on baking sheet. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until eggplant is evening brown and soft.
    2. In a medium saute pan add 1 T. olive oil over medium heat. Add prosciutto and saute until browned, about 3 minutes. Add shallots and rosemary, saute until shallots are tender. About 4 minutes. Remove from heat and save.
    3. Make the Bechamel Sauce: Bring milk and broth to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for 3 minutes and then remove from heat.
    4. Melt butter in a heavy medium sauce pan over low heat. Whisk in flour, stir carefully to make sure there are no lumps. Stir for 2 minutes to thicken. Whisk in hot milk mixture and take care to make sure there are no lumps. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. The sauce will thicken and reduce. After 5 minutes remove the sauce from the heat. Quickly add the grated Gruyere, Parmesan and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.
    5. I am a big fan of “No Boil” lasagna noodles – they save a lot of table. So, no matter what you are using, add some sauce to the bottom of a 13x9x2 inch pan. Spread sauce evenly so it coats the whole bottom. Add one layer of noodles. Add more sauce. Then put a layer of roasted eggplant and top that with the prosciutto mixture. Follow with a second layer of noodles. Repeat the sauce, eggplant, prosciutto layering pattern. Finally, top with a last layer of noodles and top with the remaining sauce.
    6. Finally, at the end, sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan cheese.
    7. Preheat oven to 350 and bake until the top of the lasagna is golden and the sauce is bubbling, about 45 minutes. It may need to bake for up to an hour if it was refrigerated. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

    Naptime Notes

    Naptime Recipe Serving ideas

    Lasagna’s can be a Mom’s best friend because the portion is often large enough so you can eat it for 2 days. The great news about this dish is that the flavors marry after 24 hours so the flavor is actually even better the second day.

    Naptime Stopwatch

    This recipe takes the entire naptime to make, about 1 ½ hours. However, if you can stretch the dish over two days then technically you saved yourself a full naptime to watch TV. I promise this is well worth the time it takes to make, the longest part is roasting the eggplants and composing the bechamel sauce.

    Naptime Reviews


    Needless to say my husband loves this. However, our toddler gives it mixed reviews. She likes the noodles and bechamel sauce, but isn’t too keen on the eggplant and prosciutto. Oh well.

    More Naptime Recipes

    Printed from: https://thenaptimechef.com/2009/02/napping-in-lasagna/