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Sourcing The Ingredients

Most market gardens have these little sheds outside their gates. Usually you can get a bag of various things basically just washed in a bag for 100 yen - although some bundles are cheaper. There’s an honour system of payment - usually a little locked box with a slot - so you need to make sure you are stocked up on small change!

On our daily walk EM and I check out the ones that regularly stock things for sale and pick up our bargains. I don’t care that the shapes are unusual - it’s super freshly picked with little handling. You can’t leave it too late in the day though or the good stuff is all gone! I’ve only had one average tasting veggie from this place - they leave their carrots in the ground a bit too long and they tend to be a bit too woody.

Often the weekly menu is dictated by what I’ve managed to score from one of these “sheds”.

Yesterday I scored a bag of eggplant so I decided to make eggplant lasagne - which would also use up the last bit of the ricotta cheese I made. I diced the eggplants and stewed them in a can of Italian tomatoes, tomato puree and red wine.

While that was going I made the pasta. I decided to use this recipe/how to it was ok, although I skipped several of the rolling through pasta machine steps because I was in a hurry.

Super Basic Lasagne Noodles Recipe

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
3 eggs

Flour in bowl - make well in centre, add eggs.

With a fork gradually mix flour into eggs. If dough too dry add water, If too sticky more flour. Take out of bowl and knead for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface.

Roll into ball and cover for 15 minutes with wet cloth (so it rests but doesn’t dry out).

Break off pieces and run them through a pasta machine.

You shouldn’t need to cook the noodles before you bake them in the lasagne.

The Lasagne

Once the noodles were done and hanging in wait, and the eggplant and tomato sauce had cooked it was then a matter of layering.

(from top to bottom)
Grated parmesan
Bechamel sauce
Noodles
Slices of mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves
Eggplant tomato sauce
Roasted red capsicum
Noodles
Ricotta cheese
Eggplant tomato sauce
Noodles

Then baked for about 20 minutes, taking off the foil for the last few minutes. I made two small pyrex loaf pan dishes which are two servings each so one could be kept for another meal. With the left over pasta I ran it through the fettucine setting on the pasta machine, boiled it in salted water and then ran some olive oil through it to keep for later.

Was pretty delicious although I managed to underestimate the amount of bechamel sauce I’d need and the top layer of noodles became a little too crispy. Also it might be more filling for hungry boys if a few more layers of noodles were added - mine was still rooting around the kitchen for more food although we’d had a green salad on the side as well.