PLANTAIN LASAGNA: A SWEET AND SAVORY TWIST

If you want to switch up your traditional lasagna recipe, try replacing your lasagna noodles with sweet plantains, it will result in a delicious Plantain Lasagna.

Plantains are precious gems. They are rich in fiber and potassium. You can bake, boil, fry, add them to stews and soups.  You can find them in different ripening stages:

• Green Peel: they are not ripe yet, at this point they are firm and not sweet.
• Yellow Peel: they are ripe and have a mild sweet taste to them.
• Black Peel: they are at the peak of the ripeness and usually super sweet and soft to the touch. Mostly used in desserts.
• A few typical Panamanian recipes with plantain are Platanos en tentación, Fried Plantain (Patacones and yellow fried plantain), Patacones rellenos with beef or shrimp, and Chocao which is a dessert. Another recipe which I almost forget plantain tarts. The majority of these recipes have a Caribbean flare to them.

Plantains Lasagna aka Pastelon is a Latin- Style (Puerto Rican) lasagna that is a combination of sweet and savory, with spiced beef, sandwiched in layers of plantains, and topped with cheese and or eggs. Have I picked your interest yet?

Are you still on the fence about plantains? Wait; are you trying to tell me you have never tried plantains before? Why not? They are all over the place these days, and they are readily available.

Plantain Lasagna

This plantain lasagna will make you hop over the fence- and join the team of these amazing starchy vegetables. And if you are fan already, then here is another recipe to widen your plantain taste buds.

Ingredients

• 3 ripe plantains
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 3 basil leave, chopped
• Beef Sauce
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 small carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 tsp minced garlic, aprox 1 clove finely chopped
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp oregano
• Cottage Cheese Mixture
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp italian seasoning

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Gather all your ingredients
2. Beef Sauce
3. Finely dice the onion, carrot and celery stalk.
4. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add 1 tsp of olive oil and add the meat. Brown it for 5 minutes. Transfer the ground meat to a dish and set aside.
5. In the same skillet add the remaining olive oil and saute the onion, carrots, and celery stalk until tender.
6. Next, add the garlic and saute for 1 more minute.
7. Add back the ground meat to the vegetables and mix everything. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.
8. Reduce to low heat, add the diced tomatoes and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
9. Cottage Cheese Mixture
10. In a medium size bowl mix the egg, cottage cheese with the Italian seasoning.
11. Plantains
12. Peel your plantains and slice them into long strips horizontally.
13. In a big skillet spray some oil and just lightly fry the plantain strips until golden on each side. Repeat until you have finished with all the strips.
14. Assembly
15. To assemble, line a loaf pan with some parchment paper to prevent the lasagna from sticking.
16. Start layering: plantain strips, cottage cheese mixture, ground beef mixture, and then mozzarella. Repeat one more time.
17. Mixed the remaining ground beef with the cheese mixture, and add it onto the top layer of the lasagna. Add remaining mozzarella.
18. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
19. Let it cool for 10 minutes, garnish with the chopped basil leaves and devour!