Eggplant-Potato Gratin

You will search and search and not find this in Ina’s book; this is a variation of the potato-fennel gratin (page 156) recipe. I was watching her show last week and she made an eggplant gratin and I decided that I wanted to try both so I mixed the two recipes together since they weren’t that different. Here is the recipe for the eggplant gratin: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/eggplant-gratin-recipe/index.html

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and buttered my baking dish. I fried the eggplant like the online recipe suggests and let the paper towels soak up the oil while I mixed the other ingredients. In a bowl I mixed the heavy whipping cream, egg, ¼ cup ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, and cheese (instead of Gruyere or parmesan, called for in the recipes, I used sharp cheddar because it's more cost efficient and still has a strong flavor). I put the eggplant slices on the bottom of the dish and sprinkled cheese, salt, and pepper on top. Then I added about ½ of a cup marinara sauce (in the show Ina said that this doesn’t have to be homemade marinara sauce but it can be if you want it to be- mine was Prego). Then I put a layer of thinly sliced potatoes and covered them with half of the creamy mixture, and then repeated. Lastly, I sprinkled cheddar on top. I put it in the preheated oven for the first 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then I turned the oven down to 350 for 45 minutes. The preparation is really fast (maybe 20 minutes) and you have some wiggle room for the ingredients on doing more or less to fit your taste.

This recipe was really yummy! It was like lasagna and I served it with a romaine salad with a nice vinaigrette dressing and feta cheese. Normally I’m not too good with mixing and matching recipes, but this time it turned out pretty good and I would recommend the dish. This is a great dish to get little ones (or husbands) to eat their veges!