Green lasagna with aubergine and zucchini

I made this when we were home visiting my parents. Mira stayed in her baby car seat comfortably and watched us the whole time. I kept thinking how I can hardly wait for her to be able to eat lasagna (among other things) so I can make some for her. (Gees, I've turned into such a mom! I guess it was to be expected). 
We're very big fans of the aubergine-zucchini combination, especially with tomato sauce, olive oil and other Italian-style combinations (like in our Linguine alla matriciana with zuccini or our Aubergine and zucchini pizza  or even Ratatoullie :) and so on). Those of you familiar with how well these things go together will know what I'm talking about. 
So, the next logical step in this Odyssey was, obviously, lasagna. And we found that green lasagna (made with spinach) was the perfect match for this filling. With lovely mozzarella cheese and garlic and thyme and a glorious bechamel  sauce, warm and soft and just wonderful. 
P.S: That's my tomcat, Perseus, sitting on the chair in my parents' kitchen. 

Last year: nothing cooked due to morning sickness while another kind of bun in the oven was slowly being prepared :).



Ingredients (serves 4):

• 200 g green lasagna sheets (we used Barilla lasagna with spinach)
• 1 medium aubergine
• 1 large zucchini
• 300 ml tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 250 g mozarella
• 50 g butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 4-5 tablespoons milk
• some salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

Get the two main protagonists:

Chop them in fine bite-sized (at most) cubes and place them in a large frying pan. Add the olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme and any other condiments you would like to use:

Fry them on low heat until softened (about 10-15 minutes), stirring once in a while.
Meanwhile, peel the garlic cloves and get the mozzarella.

Slice both the garlic and the mozzarella finely. When the veggies are softened, add the tomato sauce to them and the garlic and mix well:

Let it cook for 5-10 more minutes so the flavors get to know each other really well. After it's done, turn off the heat and let aside.
Start working on the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter (in another pan):

After it's melted add the flour, gradually, and stir very well until it's golden. Then gradually mix in the milk (don't worry if the whole thing becomes hard at first):

Continue mixing all the milk in until you have a creamy sauce. Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. It's done. To assemble the lasagna, get a heatproof dish and place a layer of bechamel on its bottom. Top with the lsagna sheets, then aubergine-zucchini sauce and 1-2 tablespoons of bechamel, then mozarella slices:

Repeat with the next lasagna sheets layer, then the sauces, then cheese and so on until you're done. It's very important to finish with a layer of bechamel thick enough to completely cover the last lasagna sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven at medium temperature (180-200 degrees C) for 40 minutes.
Take out, cut into 4 squares and transfer to serving plates. Dig in! :)