Piñón

Piñón is one of my favorite dishes that my Mom makes. It is basically Lasagna but of course, the Puerto Rican version. 

 Instead of using lasagna noodles, she uses fried sweet plantains and the meat filling is Picadillo. If you are a fan of sweet and savory, this is the dish for you! I remember growing up my Mom would make this when she would find ripe plantains. Growing up in Maryland, it was always hard to find ripe plantains but somehow she would find her way to a Carribean Market and pick the darkest, ripest plantains she could find. 

Tip: I picked up some not so ripe plantains from my local grocery store to make this dish. However there is a trick to get them ripe quick. Put plantains in a brown dark bag and stick them in your cabinet for a couple of days. Putting plantains in the dark makes them speed up the 'riping' process. This also works for avocados too. 

Piñón is a very authentic Puerto Rican dish and it is super easy to make. I recently made Picadillo, which you use for this dish - you can find the recipe here!  

Try the recipe below!

(portion varies on size of the pan - you can always save the Picadillo for later)

2 cups of Picadillo

3 ripe plantains, peeled and cut (depending mold you are using)

vegetable oil for frying plantains

4 eggs beaten and set aside

Once you prepare the Picadillo set aside and make sure you fry the sweet plantains before layering. Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees while you are preparing the dish. Oil the bottom of your baking pan and with the beaten eggs that were set aside pour a little at the bottom of pan to cover the entire pan and start layering with plantains than the Picadillo.  It should be enough for three layers to make a full 'lasagna' and make sure you end the layer with plantains. Pour the rest of the beaten eggs on the last layer and make sure to poke a fork in the dish to make sure the egg is evenly distributed throughout the entire dish. Once your oven is at 350 degrees, bake it for 30-40 minutes until the egg is crispy and brown around the edges. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Cheers to eating!