Tomato & cream Lasagne
1 eggplant
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 large can peeled tomatoes in sauce
1/2 - 1 t. oregano, thyme, rosemary
fresh basil & parsley (to dice at garnish at the end--optional)
several mushrooms

Slice the eggplant into 0.5 cm thick slices and salt on both sides. Heat a heavy, tall saucepan/french cocotte on medium. Slice onion, red pepper, mushrooms ~ the same thickness. Put a lug of olive oil in saucepan, fry up eggplant till golden on one side; flip till done. Remove from pan. Do the red pepper next & turn the heat to high, cooking till just grilled on both sides. Remove from pan and finish with the onions plus crushed whole garlic cloves. Add the can of whole tomatoes when onions are translucent. Add dry spices: rosemary, thyme, oregano. Add 2 diced cloves garlic. Leave the tomato-y mixture to simmer while preparing the bechamel.

Melt 3T butter in saucepan on med-low. Add 3T flour, let cook 3-5 mins (don't brown). Add 2 C. milk, whisking vigorously 'till it comes to a boil and thickens. Put on full heat and dilute whisking/stirring continuously while adding ~2 C of milk in a slow, steady stream. Let come to a boil a 2nd time, then simmer, add 2 cloves diced garlic, 1/2 t of nutmeg, and 1 bouillon cube (chicken).

Remove tomato mixture from heat, put 1/2 to 3/4 of the mixture aside in another bowl. Lay lasagne noodles over the remaining tomato mixture, cover with mozzerella or gruyere cheese, layer in red peppers + more sauce, then noodles, then cheese*.

*It really depends on how you prefer your lasagne. I like lots of sauce, so I only had around 3 layers of tomato sauce + noodles before switching to bechamel. I also used my round french cocotte, as I was too lazy to clean another pan. This meant that I layered whole noodles in a sort of asterix pattern, or used one whole noodle, then broke another in 2 to fill in the holes. The final result gave a nice pink mixture of tomato and bechamel, as the sauce mixed altogether due to the round cocotte. If you prefer your sauce layers to be separated--then go for a square lasagne pan, use more noodles and make sure there aren't any gaps!

Ok--when you've got the last tomato layer in place, put cheese, then switch to bechamel. Add a layer of grilled eggplant; cover with more bechamel, noodles and cheese; repeat. Finish off with a good layer of cheese so it crisps up nice in the oven.

I put the whole cocotte in the oven ~ 1.5 to 2 liters at 200 deg. C for 45 mins. The joy of using the same dish is that it's already hot so it cooks faster!

No meat in this dish, which is extremely unusual for me, but god was it GOOD!