Thursday, January 01, 2009

Spanish Eggplant Lasagne

I based this on a recipe from Daisy Fuentes on Paula Deen's show. (Click here to see the original recipe.)

Instead of making patties out of the meat and adding all that bread and egg for filler, I decided to just brown the chorizo and beef together, adding the sauce, then just making layers like in regular lasagne. My thinking was that patties would just be too dense. Be sure to taste the meat for seasoning. I didn't, and it probably could have used some salt. I'd also recommend trying Mexican chorizo, which is very crumbly. Spanish chorizo is very dense and dry, like pepperoni. The texture of the Mexican chorizo would have gone a lot nicer with the beef.

I also used mozzarella instead of manchego just because I couldn't find manchego. Don't leave out the pine nuts - they add a nice flavor and texture.

It was a big big hit. Not low calorie or low fat by any means, but a nice treat. I think it would also be good with italian sausage, hot or sweet in place of the chorizo, and the chorizo (or sausage) is fatty and flavorful enough that you could replace the beef with turkey without sacrificing flavor.