Erica De Mane

Eggplant Parmigiana, by Leighann Foster.

Recipe: Sweet Lasagna with Eggplant, Cinnamon, Almonds, and Honey

I’m often frustrated that Sicilian food doesn’t taste more Arabic, that it has dropped many of the spices that give Tunisian and Moroccan cooking, for instance, their allure. There are undeniably many Sicilian dishes that have clear Arab roots—couscous and many desserts based on honey, nuts, and dried fruits come to mind—but present-day Sicily seems, like Italy in general, to favor herbs over spices, giving much of its food a fresh taste rather than the more burnished kind spices can provide.

So I find myself taking Sicilian-style dishes and augmenting them with a touch of spice. This suits my palate lately, and it has been making me happy in my kitchen. I’m especially enamored of the sweet-tinged spicing of Moroccan couscous dishes, with their cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bay leaf, anise, allspice—some of the spices that make up ras-el-hanout, one of Morocco’s gentle spice mixes. Sicilian-style couscous goes easy on spices. In fact sometimes it includes none at all. I don’t like that. When I make Sicilian-style couscous, generally fish-based, I usually include saffron, bay leaf, and a pinch of cinnamon, a very gentle combination but still a fragrant touch.

So here’s my Sicilian eggplant lasagna with a nudge toward North Africa. It starts with the pretty standard eggplant-tomato-and-ricotta trilogy, but then I add cinnamon, a pinch of cumin, toasted almonds, and a drizzle of honey to carry the flavor to the Sicilian–North African land in my mind.

Oh, and one thing that’s kind of important: I don’t often bother with eggplant this time of year, since it can be so bitter, but I do find that the long Japanese variety tastes pretty good even in winter, so I’ve used it here.

Sweet Lasagna with Eggplant, Cinnamon, Almonds, and Honey

(Serves 6)

1 pound homemade or store-bought fresh lasagna sheets, very thinly rolled
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium Japanese eggplants, cut into small cubes
1 large shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground cumin
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon honey
A splash of dry Marsala
1 28-ounce, plus 1 15-ounce, can Italian plum tomatoes, well chopped, with the juice
1 cup grated pecorino Toscano cheese
2 cups whole milk ricotta
¾ cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
A large handful of flat leaf parsley, the leaves lightly chopped

Drizzle an 8-by-12-inch baking dish (or an equivalent oval one) with olive oil, coating it well.

Cook the lasagna sheets in plenty of boiling salted water, a few at a time, until just tender (if they’re very fresh, this can take under a minute). Then run them under cold water, and let them drain on kitchen towels.

In a large skillet, heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil over medium flame. Add the eggplant and the shallot, and sauté until just starting to brown, about 4 minutes or so. Add the garlic, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper, and sauté a few minutes longer. Add the honey, and stir. Add the Marsala, and let it boil away. Add the tomatoes, and cook at a low bubble for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. The sauce should still be a bit loose, so add a drizzle of warm water if it has gotten too thick. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and black pepper if needed (remember that seasoning a layered dish properly after the fact is difficult).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Ladle a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Add a layer of pasta sheets. Add some more sauce, and give the top a good sprinkling of pecorino. Add another layer of pasta. Now add all the ricotta, spreading it out well. Season with salt, black pepper, and some more pecorino. Scatter all the almonds over the ricotta, and then scatter on about half of the parsley. Add another layer of pasta, and spread on the rest of the sauce. Top with the remaining pecorino. Give the top a few grindings of black pepper, and a drizzle of fresh olive oil. Bake, uncovered, until the lasagna is bubbling and the top has started to brown a bit, about 25 minutes.

Let the lasagna rest about 10 minutes before cutting it.