Lasagne Ricce: Aubergine Lasagne

Name: Lasagne Ricce: Aubergine Lasagne (‘Melansagna Napoligiana’)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Oil for frying; 500 ml arrabbiata sauce (or light tomato sauce with a little chilli added); 2 medium aubergines, sliced no more than 5 mm thick Flour for dusting; 200 g grated Parmesan; 250 g buffalo mozzarella, chopped or torn; 1 small (25 g) bunch basil, roughly chopped; 400 g lasagne ricce

‘Melansagna Napoligiana’

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

The Geometry of Pasta

By Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy

Published 2010

About

This dish is the bastard son of melanzane parmigiana and lasagne Napoletane — both its progenitors hark from Naples. Their offspring was conceived far away, however (I must confess I had something to do with it) and you’re as likely to find this dish in Naples as you are a balti.

Ingredients

400 g lasagne ricce
2 medium aubergines, sliced no more than 5 mm

Main course
Starter
Vegetarian

Method

Blanch the pasta until quite flexible but still pretty raw in the middle, refresh in cold water and blot dry. Salt the aubergines with a sprinkling of fine sea salt (not so much to remove bitterness as excess water), stack them up and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Rinse and squeeze dry. Set your widest pan over a high heat with a half-centimetre depth of oil. As it just starts to smoke, flour