Pastelón — Puerto Rican Lasagna Made With Plantains
- March 2021
- By Michelle Ezratty Murphy
- Recipe from Puerto Rico
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Pastelón, a traditional Puerto Rican dish, is fairly easy to make and most Latino homecooks were probably taught by their mothers and grandmothers how to make this savory, cheesy plantain-and-ground beef favorite.
”What? You say you’ve never tried it? Do you love lasagna? Do you love plantains? Then you love pastelón!” says Michelle Ezratty Murphy, one of our favorite homecooks at Familia Kitchen. She grew up in Puerto Rico, married a local guy, and is an experta in making the island’s traditional dishes.
”I call this dish lasagna’s cousin. My Puerto Rican husband calls it a medley of everything he likes layered in between sweet plantains and then served with rice and beans or tostones,” says Michelle.
This filling dish gets its flavor from the briny taste of the capers and olives and its heartiness from the picadillo cooked with sofrito. Sofrito is the magic cooking base that makes every Boricua dish taste Puerto Rican. Just about family has their own sofrito recipe. Here at Familia Kitchen, we alternate between using this recipe by our Puerto Rican neighbor in Chicago, Doña Felipa, this classic sofrito recipe from Puerto Rican cookbook reina Carmen Aboy Valldejuli, and Michelle’s family-famous sofrito. We follow her advice to make it ahead: “I like to blend up big batches of sofrito on a Saturday, pop it into ice trays, and stock bags full of tiny sofrito cubes in my freezer for future use,” says Michelle.
The very act of making pastelón is something to celebrate with family and friends. Like lasagna, pastelón is served family style, cut into squares and dished hot and melty — right out of the pan.
”Seriously, what is there not to love about pastelón? Some even say that pastelón is better the next day — if there’s any left,” says Michelle. (Spoiler: There never is)
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