A fairly complicated, lasagnelike dish and, like lasagne, perfectly homey. With advance preparation (you can make the sauce a day ahead and sauté the plantains several hours ahead), you can throw this together quickly, but even if you do it all at once you can make quick work of it. Great with a salad, this needs nothing else. Other meat you can use here: ground turkey, chicken, veal, or pork.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 to 6 servings

　　2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed

　　1 pound ground beef

　　Salt and black pepper to taste

　　1 large onion, roughly chopped

　　1 red or green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and roughly chopped

　　1 tablespoon minced garlic

　　1 tablespoon paprika

　　1 tablespoon ground cumin

　　2 teaspoons dried oregano, preferably Mexican

　　2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine)

　　1 recipe Platanos Maduros (page 472)

　　2 eggs, lightly beaten, optional

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the oil in a large skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. A minute later, add the meat and some salt and pepper and cook, stirring to break up lumps, until it loses its color, just a couple of minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add the onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until quite soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, cumin, oregano, and tomatoes and some more salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is saucy, 15 to 20 minutes. (This is a good time to sauté the plantains if you have not already done so.)

　　

Step 2

Return the beef to the sauce and cook for another 5 minutes; taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Use about a third of the sauce to make a thin layer at the bottom of an 8- or 9-inch square casserole or similar-size dish. Top with a layer of plantains, then more sauce, then the remaining plantains, then finally the remaining sauce. Pour the eggs over all if you like. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until heated through, then serve hot or at room temperature or cover and refrigerate overnight before covering with foil and reheating in a 250°F oven.

　　The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.