Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

This recipe follows closely on the heels of my attempt to duplicate my brother Eric's lasagna - and it's a pretty close second!

Brian's mom is nursing a bum foot so we put this roasted vegetable together for them. Knowing a full pan would last them about a week and a half, we built the lasagnas in two 8" x 8" pans - we gave one to Sue and Kevin and kept the other for ourselves.

I'm not gonna lie - this is a fairly time-consuming proposition. I used exactly as much vegetables as the recipes called for, cut to the instructed thickness, and it took three cookie sheets to roast each vegetable. And the zucchini took almost twice as long as the squash and eggplant. That said, it's an incredibly easy recipe - it was perfect for a cold, playoff football-filled Sunday at the beach.

One more note - I wrapped ours well and froze it for about a week before we thawed and baked it for dinner last night. We like the cheese on top to be nice and toasty brown, so I baked it the entire time uncovered...and the top really dried out. I think, because the recipe called for no-bake noodles, they soaked up all the moisture from the cheese and sauce. No problem - I just topped it with some warmed up sauce before serving. It was filling, warm and comforting for a blizzardy night.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz no-boil lasagna

• Prepare a 13”x 9″  baking dish (or two 8" x 8" pans)

For the vegetables:

• 2 lb acorn squash, sliced thinly (other kinds like butternut and delicata squash would work, too)

• 2 lb zucchini, sliced thinly

• 1 lb eggplant, sliced thinly

• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme

• salt & pepper

• olive oil

For the marina sauce:

• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

• 6 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 medium size yellow onion, chopped

• 1 medium size red bell pepper, chopped

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• salt & pepper

For the cheese filling:

• 15 oz ricotta cheese

• 16 oz mozzarella cheese, grated

• 8 oz parmesan cheese, grated

• 6 oz baby spinach

• 2 eggs

• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1/8  tsp ground pepper

• salt, a pinch

• olive oil

Method:

Note - check out the original recipe for great step-by-step photos of the preparation and assembly.

Prepare the vegetables:

1. Preheat your oven at 400 degrees F and prepare your baking sheet for roasting vegetables. 
2. Slice squash, zucchini and eggplant into 1/8 inch thick and place them in separate bowls (no need to peel, unless preferred otherwise).  
3. Drizzle some olive oil, add 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper in each bowl.
4. Coat sliced vegetables evenly and place each kind on a baking sheet on a single layer , making sure they don’t overlap or crowd too much (you don’t want to steam the vegetables, instead you want to dehydrate them and concentrate the flavor).  
5. Roast it in the oven for about 15 minutes (it took 30 minutes for my zucchini to roast).  Set aside when ready. 
6. When done roasting the vegetables, turn the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Prepare the marina sauce:

1. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  
2. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. 
3. Add red bell pepper and cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Pour in tomato sauce. Add dried oregano and basil.  Add salt and pepper, adjusting to your taste. 
5. Let it come to a boil and set aside.

Prepare the cheese filling:

1. In a bowl, save a heaping cup of mozzarella cheese and half a cup of parmesan for later.
2. Wilt the spinach on a pan with a little bit of olive oil (I used baby spinach so I don’t get the stringy stems).
3. In another bowl, combine ricotta cheese, the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Slightly beat the eggs and pour into the mixture. Add the spinach, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Assemble and bake the lasagna

1. On the bottom of the dish (**if splitting between two pans, divide all ingredients in two and prepare each pan identically), spread marinara sauce, just enough to cover the surface. 
2. Layer with lasagna noodles (note that the noodles expand they cook).  
3. The cheese mixture goes next, spreading evenly.  
4. Layer the vegetable starting with the squash, then zucchini and eggplant.  
5. Spread the marinara sauce over. 
6. Repeat the layering – noodles, cheese mixture, vegetable filling and marinara sauce. 
7. Top with noodles, then add the remaining sauce and dollops of the  remaining cheese mixture. 
8. Lastly, top it off with the mixture of mozzarella and parmesan cheese that was set aside.  
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, uncovered (Check the cooking instructions of your no-boil lasagna). Leave it uncovered the entire baking time to get the cheese browned if desired.  
10. Let cool for about 15 minutes and then dig in!

Source: Eat Drink Binge