I found this recipe on food.com and have been making this dish for quite a while. As with othe recipes if I don’t have the ingredients that the recipe calls for I use whatever substitute I have in the house. For instance I use Swiss Chard when I don’t have spinach or chives instead of scallions. Also, instead of making noodles out of the eggplant you can use zucchini too. I just slice the eggplants about 1 inch thick, brush it with some olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes or until it is tender. When eggplant is in season this is a great way to freeze eggplants for the winter months.
Mock Noodles
2 large eggplants, peeled, sliced lengthwise into 1/4 inch noodle-like strips
cooking spray (olive oil spray is best)
salt and pepper
Meat Sauce
1 1⁄2 lbs ground sirloin or 1 1⁄2 lbs turkey breast or 1 1⁄2 lbs Italian sausage
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 red pepper, chopped
1 (16 ounce) package sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons italian seasoning (or mix of oregano, basil and thyme)
1 teaspoon fennel seed (optional)
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (if you dare!) (optional)
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
1 cup red wine (optional) or 1 cup vodka (optional)
1 (28 ounce) can tomato sauce (or large jar sugar free sauce if you can find it)
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (for less sugar, 3 chopped roma tomatoes)
Cheese Mixture
2 cups low-fat ricotta cheese
2 eggs
3 green onions, chopped
3 cups shredded lowfat mozzarella cheese
1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray cookie sheet, arrange eggplant slices and season with salt and pepper.
3. Cook slices 5 minutes on each side.
4. Lower oven temp to 375.
5. Brown meat, onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes.
6. Add red pepper and mushrooms, and cook 5 minutes.
7. Add spinach, tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices and wine and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
8. Blend ricotta, egg and onion mixture.
9. Spread 1/3 of meat sauce in bottom of 9” x 13” glass pan.
10. Layer ½ eggplant slices, ½ ricotta, 1/3 mozzarella and parmesan.
11. Repeat.
12. Add last layer of sauce, then mozzarella and parmesan on top.
13. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.
14. Remove foil and bake or broil another 5-10 minutes until cheese is browned.
15. Let it rest 10 minutes before slicing, if you can wait that long!