Try a cheesy tortilla and vegetable casserole

Video: The authentic Mexican dish every cook should know

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   >>> this morning in "today's kitchen" we're spicing things up with a mexican-style lasagna. instead of pasta, we're using tortillas. marcella is the host of food network 's mexican made easy. it's a traditional dish with authentic flavors, and even better, it's delicious and it's easy. marcella, good to see you.

   >> good to see you. how are you?

   >> good. this is very exciting. i never heard of this kind of a lasagna.

   >> it's called a pasta azteca. an aztec cake. instead of using pasta sheets we're going to use these.

   >> how do we get started?

   >> we have to fry the tortillas just a tiny bit. same way you would do with enchiladas.

   >> are these flour or corn?

   >> these are corn. you fry them because we're making a wonderful sauce and you want to make sure it stands up to the sauce and doesn't get all soggy. it's going to make it fine --

   >> it's a gluten free recipe.

   >> exactly. it sure is. just a couple seconds, you don't want to make a tosta. you want them to be pliable. like a lasagna you need various fillings. we're going to make a saw tao with garlic and onion and then i've got some tomato puree . you've always got the option of making it from scratch, which i always choose to do. but you can absolutely just buy the puree from the supermarket and use that and make your life a whole lot easier.

   >> could you use crushed tomatoes?

   >> absolutely. what you want to do is just achieve a nice, smooth sauce so when you're layering you get most of the texture from what we're doing right here.

   >> the other great thing about this is, you know, in a sense you're adding a lot of vegetables. you're hiding vegetables from the kids.

   >> oh, absolutely. i have a young son, he's around here somewhere.

   >> actually he's a gorgeous young man, got long hair. i said oh, is that your daughter outside?

   >> oh, yeah.

   >> i didn't say it to him. i said it to you. you don't have to repeat that.

   >> he's watching you right now. so it's too late. but you know what --

   >> back to this.

   >> back to this. this is really good because he's going to get tomatoes, onions, garlic, zucchini that i'm going to saute. a little bit of corn and we're going to get nice, smoky flavor and not too much heat from some poblanos. these beautiful ones right here. we peeled them and cut them into stripped.

   >> is this a store bought version or do you have to do this?

   >> there's no comparison in using the fresh. it only takes a couple minutes and it makes your house smell amazing. just char them directly over a gas burner so they're all blackened and then peel them and slice and that's it. and the flavor is just, you can't compare.

   >> how long would you saute?

   >> for about a good -- and then we're going to add some water. what we're going to do. we want everything to steam up and get really, really soft. we're looking at eight minutes. everything softens up and it's nice and yummy. and then, lasagna layering time.

   >> okay.

   >> this is basically what we're doing. we want to grab the tortillas. and exactly as you would a lasagna, you're going to take some of that tomato sauce from the bottom. on the bottom. and then we're going to layer with some of the zucchini, with the corn, the fresh corn and the poblano. and then we're going to layer with a couple of those tortillas.

   >> right here?

   >> just over the top , yes. just doing half so you get a good idea. then a little bit of the tomato. so you basically repeat.

   >> make a layer.

   >> exactly.

   >> and then, we're just going to add a little bit of sour cream or mexican, whatever you have available. a little bit of the cheese. you're going to fill up the whole dish. you can use any white melting cheese. monterey jack cheese , oaxaca cheese would be great. and then you come back here.

   >> put this in the oven?

   >> put this in the oven.

   >> oh, my gosh!

   >> who can mistake this for a girl.

   >> oh!

   >> the cutest boy in the world.

   >> and he's got missing the teeth there.

   >> okay. and then some fresca with the strawberries, apricot, a little bit of sugar.

   >> what's your name again, young man?

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