Pastelón – Dominican Sweet Plantain Lasagna

Pastelón, our classic sweet and savory yellow plantain and ground beef filled lasagna. But no worries, it’s not too sweet because the beef filling will cut in with its tangy classic Dominican seasoning. The cheese topping will caramelize as you can see in the images. I love a caramelized top layer and to achieve that I make sure to have a layer of ground beef under the shredded cheese. The beef’s oil will melt in with the cheese and wow! It’s just amazing!!!!

We have different ways to layer the pastelón in Dominican Republic but this is my favorite.

I ventured out during this stay-at-home Coronavirus time to my local Asian market where I get my plantains and other Latin ingredients. They only had 8 yellow plantains left of which I needed 6 for this recipe but felt super guilty taking them all so I only picked up 4. This made my yellow plantain layers thinner but I will have the recipe reading for the right amount of plantains for you. I couldn’t just take all of those plantains.

This would be a full dinner served with some greens on the side. Now let’s go ahead and make this!

Pastelón – Dominican Sweet Plantain Lasagna

Dominican Pastelón, sweet and savory yellow plantain and ground beef filled lasagna. What Caribbean dreams are made of!

4.37 from 11 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Caribbean, Cuban, Dominican, Latin, Latin Fusion

Keyword: beef lasagna, beef recipe, carme molida dominicana, carne molida recipe, dominican ground beef recipe, dominican lasagna, Dominican lasagna recipe, dominican pastelon, pastelon, pastelon de platanos maduros, pastelon de platanos maduros dominicanos, pastelon de platanos maduros puerto rico, pastelon de platanos maduros y carne molida, pastelon dominicano, plantain lasagna, sweet plantain lasagna, sweet plantain recipe

Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 9 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb 85% ground beef
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1 tbsp Goya adobo
• 1 tsp ground oregano
• 1/4 cup Goya salad olives or Goya Manzanillo olives chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 6-8 yellow (sweet) plantains
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk use amount needed to have mash potatoes consistency
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella for topping

Instructions

• In a skillet, brown the ground beef.
• As its almost all the way browned, add the lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, adobo, oregano and salad olives. Stir well.
• Add tomato sauce and cilantro, stir well and allow for liquid to evaporate. You'll see more oil than water in the skillet at that point.
• Set aside.
• Peel the yellow (sweet) plantains, cut into 3 pieces and add to a water filled pot.
• Cover and bring to a boil. Cook until plantains are tender. About 15 to 20 minutes. Sweet plantains will cook faster or slower depending on how ripe they are, so keep poking for tenderness.
• Once plantains are cooked, drain and remove them into a deep bowl.
• Mash all the plantains. Add butter and mash in well.
• Add milk in small amounts as needed. Mash well. We are looking for a mashed potatoes consistency.
• Heat oven to 450ᴼ degrees.
• Once ready, use a lasagna type baking pan. Spray it with spray oil or butter.
• Spread half of the mashed sweet plantain at the bottom of the pan.
• Next, spread half the ground beef mixture over the sweet plantains.
• Spread the second half of the sweet plantains over the beef mixture.
• Now spread the second half of the beef mixture over the sweet plantains.
• Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the beef mixture layer.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is nice and golden brown.
• Cut into 9 pieces and enjoy!

Video