My started package.json for a typical ExpressJS/ejs Node aApp

package.json

{
  "name": "application-name",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "~3.2.5",
    "ejs": "~0.8.4",
    "less-middleware": "*",
    "express-ejs-layouts": "~0.3.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "grunt": "~0.4.1",
    "grunt-contrib-less": "~0.5.2",
    "grunt-contrib-watch": "~0.4.3"
  }
}

Add the following to your app.js file:

expressLayouts = require('express-ejs-layouts')

app.set( 'view engine', 'ejs' );

app.set('layout', 'layout'); // defaults to 'layout'

app.use(expressLayouts);