Recipe: Aubergine And Bacon Lasagna

Haven't we done this before? In fact no, I've done Aubergine Lasagna, but I now cook it differently, and I've done Bacon Lasagna but I cook that differently too. In fact you can see the slow evolution of my lasagna cooking process if you compare them. AS I HAVE JUST NOW.

A medium sized aubergine (eggplant) cut into medium thick slices

Some leftover bacon, cut into slivers

An onion, peeled and chopped
A carrot, peeled and chopped
A pepper, chopped (this was because I had one left over)
2 stalks of celery, chopped
A dessert spoon or so of soy sauce
A table spoon or so of tomato puree
Half a ham stock cube
A tea spoon of harissa (because it was left over; garlic, a little chili and some herbs would take it's place)
A tin of chopped tomatoes
A little olive oil

100g or so of butter
4 dessert spoons or so of plain flour
About a pint of whole milk

Most of a small pack of grated cheese
Two mozzarella balls

A pack of lasagna sheets

Use just a tiny bit of olive oil in a big, preferably heavy, hot pan, then cook the bacon bits until they start to brown. Removes them with a slotted spoon and let them stand.

To the pan add the onion, carrot, pepper and celery, with a little more oil if it looks like it might need it. Cook them until they're softening, then stir in the harissa, tomato puree and stock cube. Cook for a minute or two more, then add the bacon, followed by the soy sauce and tin of tomatoes. Add enough water to cover the ingredients, bring to the boil and let simmer for an hour, or more. It wants to be thick by the end of it. This should give you time to...

Heat an oven to 180C. Lightly oil a baking tray, put the aubergine slices on it, drizzle them with oil and sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper. Bake them until they're starting to turn brown.

Leave the oven on if you're going to bake the lasagna right away. You need a big lasagna dish for this.

One more element, the white sauce. Melt the butter in a small pan. Stir in the flour, if it's a bit liquidy add more flour. You want to cook the butter and flour roux for a minute or too. Then add the milk a little at a time, stirring it in. Keep stirring, you don't want the sauce to burn. Eventually it will thicken. When you think it's almost thick enough, take if off the heat.

I like to do this in three layers, though two may be easier. First some bacon  and tomato sauce, covering the base of the lasagna dish. Then a layer of aubergine slices. Then cover with sheets of lasagna. Then some white sauce over it, this sticks it together. Start again with bacon and tomato, aubergine, lasagna and white sauce. Then one more time, finishing with white sauce. On top of this lay sliced mozzarella and then cover with grated cheese, something with a bit of flavour if you have it. You can pause here if you're not cooking immediately.

The lasagna dish is probably pretty full so put it on a baking tray before putting in the oven (180C). Take a look after 40 minutes, everything's cooked already so it should be fine but if it's not brown and you're not in a hurry another 10 or 20 minutes won't hurt.