Eggplant Lasagna

Y goes crazy over tomatoes! He loves tomatoes fresh, over fish, on rice, and I was sure he'd love it with eggplants and cheese. For this recipe (1 medium-sized eggplant), I was able to make 3 small lasagna plates, and Y finished them all.

Fresh tomatoes for the marinara, eggplants, cheese and thyme

Ingredients

1 pc medium-sized eggplant (around 8-10 inches in length), cut diagonally

Mozzarella or cheddar cheese

Some olive oil for greasing the baking pan

A dash of thyme

For the marinara:

4 pcs small, ripe tomatoes, brunoised

1 clove of garlic

1/4 of an onion

A dash of pepper and thyme

A dash of coconut sugar (optional)

Procedure:

1. Preheat your oven until 170-180 degrees. Grease your baking pan/tray with olive oil and lay your eggplant pieces flat onto the tray. Bake your eggplant pieces until the flesh turns golden brown (around 5-8 minutes).
2. While baking your eggplant, begin your marinara sauce by sauteeing garlic, onions, and the tomatoes over olive oil. Pound the tomato cubes until you get a tomato-sauce-like texture. Note: I personally like my marinara chunky, but you can go ahead and put the cooked marinara under a food processor to make it smoother.
3. Add a little bit of coconut sugar to the marinara (optional), and add thyme and a dash of pepper.
4. Set aside your marinara sauce, and take your pre-baked eggplants out of the oven.
5. Layer your "lasagna noodles" (a.k.a. the eggplant pieces) and the marinara sauce to your preference. This is how I layered mine (bottom to top):
   • Eggplant
   • Marinara
   • Cheese
   • Eggplant
   • Marinara
   • Eggplant
   • Cheese
   • A dash of thyme
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.