Rustic Bread and Eggplant Lasagna

VeganYumYum is one of those cooking blogs that make you want to stay home all day and just make incredible culinary masterpieces and share them with the world. In a perfect world, I would have the talent to do such things, but alas I do not. So I secretly pine for the day when I create ridiculous vegan meals like Lolo. This girl is no joke. She's even been on Martha Stewart for pete's sake! Not only does she know how to make delicious vegan food, but she takes these beautiful photos for step by step instructions. See for yourself at veganyumyum.com

For some reason though, her recipes always intimidated me a bit. I finally decided to put my big girl pants on this weekend and make her Rustic Bread and Eggplant Lasagna. Here's the recipe:

3 Tbs Olive Oil
4-6 Cloves Garlic, minced (optional)
2 28 oz Cans Organic Tomatoes, blended
2 tsp Salt
4 tsp Dried Italian Herbs
Olive Oil, for drizzling
2-3 Medium Eggplants, peeled
8-10 Large Slices of Sourdough Bread
1 Cup Breadcrumbs (or 2 more pieces of bread for toasting and food processing)
1-2 Large, Ripe Tomatoes, fresh, for garnish
Basil, for garnish

In a very large skillet with high sides, or a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Sweat the garlic for 1-2 minutes, then add tomatoes, salt, and herbs. Cook for 30 minutes (bubbling), stirring occasionally. Invert a mesh strainer over the top of the pan to prevent splatter, if desired.

Preheat oven to 400º F.

Meanwhile, prep two baking sheets with parchment paper. Peel the eggplants by slicing off the top and bottom and using the cut edge to start your vegetable peeler. Holding the eggplant vertically, cut the eggplants into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange in one layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle liberally with olive oil.

Place half of the eggplant on top of the bread, followed by another 1 to 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce. Add a second layer of bread. dd the second half of the eggplant, and all of the remaining sauce. Make sure that the bread is completely covered by sauce. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top. Place fresh tomato slices on the top of the lasagna, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes at 400º F. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before cutting. Top with basil leaves and drizzle sweet and thick balsamic vinegar (or balsamic syrup) on the plate if desired. Enjoy!

This recipe did take a while to make - but so does normal lasagna. It's one of those dishes I classify as a weekend meal. No one is going to make lasagna after they get home from a long day at work. Also, every minute spent making this was completely worth it! It is sooooo good!! Duda and I both had three pieces each!! That's pretty much half of the dang lasagna!!

Next time I'll probably ease up on the salt though- it's in the sauce, on the eggplant , and on top of the entire dish before it's put in the oven. You also want to make sure the sourdough bread you get is pretty big. The only sourdough bread my grocery store had was on the flat side so I needed more slices than I had to really fill an entire layer.

In conclusion - awesome recipe, awesome blog, and awesome-ness all around.