My Mom’s Eggplant Lasagna Is the Comfort Food I Beg for All Year Long

Lasagna is the ultimate comfort meal. Cheesy, saucy, and warm, it’s exactly the sort of thing I want to eat when I’m sick, sad, or healing—but not necessarily something I want to cook for myself under those circumstances.

Enter: Mom. She always knows when someone needs a little pick-me-up, and she keeps this eggplant lasagna recipe in her back pocket for just those moments. Her go-to version swaps out lasagna noodles for slices of eggplant, and it won me over instantly.

My Mom’s Eggplant Lasagna Recipe

My mom is the queen of comfort food. She’s great at making it, of course, but she also has a knack for finding clever ways to simplify the process, making her recipes easy to replicate and share. Like the best recipes passed down through generations, hers are easy to memorize, repeatable, and consistently impressive.

She layers sliced eggplant—either fried or roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper—with marinara sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheese in a deep baking dish. Depending on who she’s making it for, she might incorporate sautéed and drained spinach, savory ground beef, or other veggies like mushrooms. The bones of the recipe are always the same, though, and it travels, freezes, and reheats exceptionally well.

The Trick Behind My Mom’s Eggplant Lasagna

Over the years, my Mom has made her fair share of homemade lasagna—with pasta, cheese, beef or spinach, and tomato sauce—but she found that swapping in eggplant slices made the dish a little surprising and a lot more special. The mild sweetness of the eggplant is hearty, and its velvety texture soaks up all the cheesy, tomatoey flavors in a way noodles never quite could. It quickly became one of her most-requested dishes, and she always jumps into action making it for friends and family in need of a comforting, easy-to-reheat home-cooked meal.

The best part? It’s versatile. Eggplant lasagna is a great option for those with gluten sensitivities. (And if you’re really craving pasta, it’s delicious served over a bowl of noodles for ultimate decadence). Despite being a big fan of traditional lasagna myself, I’d take her eggplant version over the classic any day.

How To Make the Best Eggplant Lasagna

• Salt the eggplant: My mom insists on heavily salting the eggplant and letting it sit for 20–30 minutes before blotting it well. This draws out excess moisture. If salted for too short a time, the eggplant won’t soak up the sauce in the oven; too long, and it can get tough and not as pleasant to eat.
• Pre-cook the eggplant: Whether you dredge individual eggplant slices in panko to fry it before laying or simply roast it, make sure the eggplant is fully cooked before layering it into the lasagna. This helps eliminate excess moisture and creates an ultra-velvety, flavorful eggplant layer.
• Make your own marinara: My mom swears by making her own marinara sauce—but she’ll admit she sometimes uses Rao’s in a pinch.

Get the recipe: Eggplant Lasagna