Pastelón

Pastelón (Spanish for "big cake") is a Dominican and Puerto Rican dish. The dish is prepared differently on both islands.

Ingredients and preparation
The pastelón is a casserole dish consisting of typical Latin Caribbean foods such as plantains, sofrito, and seasoned, mince meat (beef).

Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic this dish is made with boiled mashed ripe plantains. The dish is often called Dominican casserole or ripe plantain casserole using typically Dominican style picadillo and cheddar cheese. A layer of mashed plantain is placed at the bottom of a baking pan and covered with picadillo and cheddar. Another layer of mashed plantain is placed on top with picadillo and cheddar. The dish is then covered with aluminum and baked for an additional 35-45 minutes.

Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico pastelón is considered a Puerto Rican variation of lasagna and inspired by such. Sweet plantains are peeled cut lengthwise in to strips and fried. The plantain replaces lasagna pasta. Traditional pastelón is with stewed ground beef picadillo because the sauce of stew is then used between layers. In modern variations, the Minced meat is sautéed with most notably bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, basil, parsley, olives, capers, raisins, garlic, and wine. Plantains are then placed at the bottom of a baking pan layered with meat filling (mozzarella, ricotta, bechamel, or marinara are incorporated in modern variations because if the meat is sauteed instead of stewed it's dryer). This is then repeated about two more times making layers just like a lasagna, but on the traditional pastelón some people would pour a beaten egg on the top layer before adding the shredded mozzarella or cheddar or both. It is then baked. Plantains can be replaced with batata or boiled mashed potatoes, breadfruit, yuca, celery root(apio), taro(malanga),ñame, or yautia.

A modern vegetarian variation of pastelón is popular recently as well replacing meat with mushrooms, eggplant, squash, string beans, potato or chayote.