Lasagna. Complete comfort food for the cooler months of the year. The oven warms the home and the lasagna warms you. Throw in some fresh vegetables and you have a match made in heaven.
My favorite garden vegetable to use in lasagna is zucchini, as it’s a perfect substitute for the pasta noodles. It holds it’s shape extremely well, does a nice job of taking on the flavor of the tomato sauce and it’s good for you! You can also use thinly sliced eggplant instead of the zucchini, but that gets a bit more messy.
Zucchini Lasagna
You can use thinly sliced, fresh zucchini as a substitute for all of your pasta noodles, or for as little as much as you please.
As with any good recipe, you’ll want to get every ready to go before you begin assembling the lasagna. Make your tomato sauce, cheese mixture and cut the zucchini to size first.
Make sure to thinly slice your zucchini. The easiest way to do this consistently is by using a mandolin, but watch your fingers!
Note: In this recipe I replaced half the noodles with 2 zucchinis. If you want to use all zucchini for your layers you’ll want to have about 4 medium zucchini on hand.
After slicing the zucchini then you’ll want to mix all the cheese together. Save the parmesan cheese and a little bit of mozzarella cheese for sprinkling on top of the lasagna at the end.
Once you have everything prepped you can begin layering. Repeat your layers twice and then top with noodles, sauce and the reserved mozzarella and parmesan cheese. You can also top with some fresh basil or other herbs.
Cover the lasagna with foil and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes to slightly brown your cheese. Remove from oven and allow to sit for about 15 minutes. This makes it easier to serve, as the lasagna is more likely to hold its shape on the plate.
Serve warm with some garlic bread and a nice salad! Enjoy.
| Cook Time | 30 Minutes |
| Servings |
Servings
|
- 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
- 1/2 Onion chopped
- 1 lb. Ground Beef or Venison
- 1 Tbsp. Dried Spices oregano, basil
- 24 oz. Tomato Pasta Sauce
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 2 cups Ricotta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Cottage Cheese
- 1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder
- 2 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 7 Lasagna Noodles no bake noodles
- 2 Zucchini, Medium sliced lengthwise
- 1/2 c Parmesan cheese shredded
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Fresh Basil
Ingredients
Tomato Sauce
Lasagna
|
|
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a skillet heat up olive oil, add onion and cook or 5 min. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain off fat. Add assorted dried spices and mix in tomato pasta sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.
- In a bowl combine the mozzarella, ricotta and cottage cheese. Add the garlic powder and mix everything together.
- Using a 9x13 glass pan start to layer the lasagna. Start with a thin layer of the tomato sauce mixture.
- Cover the tomato sauce with a layer of thinly sliced zucchini. Cover the zucchini with the cheese mixture. Add tomato sauce.
- Top with 4 oven-ready lasagna noodles and repeat. Sauce. Zucchini. Cheese. Noodles. For the final layer pour out remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese on top. Sprinkle with ground salt and pepper. Top with fresh basil if desired.
- Cover the lasagna with foil and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes to slightly brown your cheese. Remove from oven and allow to sit for about 15 minutes before serving
I had to pin this. :)
http://www.pinterest.com/waynemoran/pins/
All the best.
Glad you did Wayne :c) Thanks! Nothing beats a good lasagna on a cold MN day!