Brown 1.5# of lean ground beef in a large saucepan (1# if using 3qt baking dish).  Add 2 minced onions, a small head of garlic, minced, 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 cup of red wine, 1 cinnamon stick, 2-3 cloves, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp nutmeg and bring to a simmer.  Then add 2 cups of crushed tomatoes (1 can), and simmer for another hour.  Might try the bay leafs here instead of in the bechamel next time?

While it simmers:
- sweat 2 sliced eggplants until the moisture comes out (if you don't do a thorough job of this, you'll get watery end results), then fry until soft.  
- slice 3 (2 if using 3qt baking dish) yukon gold potatoes, soak briefly in water, rinse and then fry until somewhat crispy/golden

Lay out the cooked potatoes on the bottom of your dish, then the cooked eggplant, then top with the simmered meat sauce

Make a bechamel sauce:  melt 5 tbsp butter in a large saucepan.  While it sizzles, add 6 tbsp flour (GF works fine).  simmer for a moment until heated, then add warmed (not cold..steaming but not boiling best but room temperature better than nothing) milk: 3-4 cups (3 if using 3qt baking dish) and also add 2 bay leaves.  Incorporate fully (whisking a lot) before adding 1 cup of grated parmesan.

Pour bechamel into baking pan, then top with 1/2 cup of grated parmesan.  Bake at 390 for 50 minutes, let rest for 15 min before eating.


Note 1: this makes more than 3 quarts by a long shot, so use at least a 4 quart baking dish (deeper than traditional casserole dish) or cut back on something like 1/2 of the bechamel and/or 2 potatoes instead of 3.  Also might try skipping the eggplants if you have a picky eater in the guest list but I like em.