Cheesy Black Bean Lasagna

I am nesting. I am nesting and I am not even the one having the baby. Jenny is having the baby. Jenny is the one whose body is doing the work. But I am nesting because grandmothers nest too — we prepare food, we stock freezers, we cook and freeze and label and stack because when the baby comes, nobody is going to be cooking, nobody is going to be sleeping, nobody is going to be doing anything except staring at a tiny human being and weeping with joy, and during that time the family needs to eat and the food needs to be ready and Carmen Delgado-Ortiz will make sure the food is ready.

This week I cooked and froze: twenty portions of arroz con pollo. Fifteen portions of habichuelas guisadas. Ten containers of sofrito. A dozen empanadas. Two trays of lasagna — yes, lasagna, because Jenny is American and Americans eat lasagna postpartum and I am meeting my daughter-in-law where she lives, culturally speaking, because that is what family does. I also made a batch of caldo de pollo because chicken soup is universal, chicken soup crosses all borders, chicken soup is the United Nations of comfort food.

Eduardo watched me fill the freezer and said, Carmen, there is enough food here for a month. I said, Eduardo, when a baby comes, a month of food is the minimum. He said, The baby is not coming to OUR house. The baby is going to THEIR house. I said, And I will be at their house every day with food, Eduardo. That is the plan. That is the only plan. He nodded. He knows the plan. He has known the plan since Jenny announced the pregnancy. The plan is: Carmen cooks, Carmen delivers, Carmen feeds, Carmen holds the baby while the food is heating. The plan is airtight. The plan is my life work.

Sofia is finishing her second semester. She is doing well — A in anatomy, B-plus in chemistry, A in English. My daughter, heading for nursing school, heading for the hospital, heading for a life of helping people the way I help people, with different tools but the same heart. I made her maduros this week as a study snack and she ate them at the kitchen table with her textbook open and Mami sitting across from her pointing at anatomy diagrams and saying, I have that bone. Where is that bone? Sofia showed her. Mami touched her own elbow and said, Here? Sofia said, Yes, Abuela. Here. Three generations at a kitchen table — the grandmother discovering her bones, the daughter studying them, the mother feeding both. This is the Delgado-Ortiz education system. It runs on maduros and love.

Of everything I froze this week, the lasagna is the one that made me think the hardest. Jenny loves lasagna — it is her comfort food the way arroz con pollo is mine — so I wanted to make her one that felt like both of us, like our two families sitting down together. This cheesy black bean lasagna is what I came up with: the beans are mine, the cheese and the noodles are hers, and the love baked into every layer belongs to all of us. It freezes beautifully, it reheats in minutes, and when that baby comes and Jenny is too tired to think about dinner, this will be waiting.

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

9 lasagna noodles
2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 cup diced green chiles (one 4 oz can)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 375°F. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions, drain, and set aside. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Make the bean filling. In a large bowl, combine the black beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Stir well and lightly mash about half the beans with a fork to create a thick, saucy mixture.
Mix the ricotta layer. In a separate bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, egg, cilantro, and a pinch of salt until smooth.
Layer the lasagna. Spread 1/3 of the bean mixture on the bottom of the prepared dish. Top with 3 noodles, half the ricotta mixture, 1/3 of the corn, 1/3 of the green chiles, and 1 cup of Monterey Jack. Repeat with another layer of beans, noodles, remaining ricotta, corn, chiles, and Monterey Jack. Top with the last 3 noodles, remaining bean mixture, remaining corn and chiles, and the shredded cheddar.
Bake. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and golden at the edges.
Rest and serve. Let the lasagna rest for 10 minutes before cutting. This helps the layers hold together when you slice.

Freezer instructions: Assemble the lasagna but do not bake. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, then foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. To cook from frozen, remove plastic wrap, re-cover with foil, and bake at 375°F for 1 hour covered, then 15 minutes uncovered.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cheesy Black Bean Lasagna — Because Family Means Meeting Each Other at the Table