So, for dinner tonight, by Emily's request, was lasagna. I'm trying to cook more meatless meals lately (for environmental reasons, as well as "good for the body" reasons) so I went veggie. This is NOT a traditional Italian lasagna. This is, for the most part, a full-blown North American lasagna, with a couple of exceptions, those being fresh pasta and limited sauce. Being that I'm a little under the gun and dead tired right now, I took some shortcuts, too (no homemade sauces tonight).
Vegetable Lasagna (pretty much use whatever veggies you like although I highly recommend eggplant be included)
I use fresh pasta (got to!), so no need to boil the pasta before hand... much better tasting and a time saver, too.Chop up two onions, some zucchini, half an eggplant and a pepper. Saute in olive oil and add a whole lot of garlic. Poor in some tomato sauce after it is all nicely softened.
Dump one container of ricotta (not light, please!) into a separate bowl, add an egg, some salt and pepper and some spinach (I use frozen chopped, one full package). Mix. Add some mozzarella if you like. I do.
In big pan, spread a bit of tomato sauce on bottom, put in one layer of noodles. Pour on all of the veggie mixture. Put another layer of noodles. Pour on all of the cheese mixture. Put on another layer of noodles. Spread on a thin layer of tomato sauce and grate some mozzarella on top. Bake uncovered in 350F oven for about 45 minutes. Let sit for about 15 minutes before serving.
This is NOT a saucy lasagna. You don't need to overpower lasagna with sauce if you use fresh pasta. All the flavour comes from the fresh pasta and the lovely fillings.
It was a big hit, although, sadly, Emily insisted on ketchup and bread and butter pickles on the side. Sigh.
Check out the home of the original What's Cooking Wednesday at Tales from the Fairy Blogmother.
1 comment:
Oh this looks yummy! I'm going to give it a try. It will make a nice break from my regular lasagna. Thanks!
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