Back when I attended the College of Weight Watchers, I'd get a little low fat recipe card each week to make eating healthily easier and more delicious. Most of them were for fancy green beans or some freaky meatloaf, but the recipe for veggie lasagna, with fattening modifications of course, is one that has worked its way onto the list of 10 Things I Can Cook Really Well.
Every time I make this at home Mack eats through the entire pan in a day. And when I make it for parties or when we have friends over, I always get asked for the recipe. Which is fine except the recipe I have is the WW one and it's just not as good as the one in my brain.
So, for all those who want to know and for those who just need something to read right now, here's my La Lasagna.
Ingredients
12 lasagna noodles
2 jars of spaghetti sauce
8oz. packages of mozzarella cheese
1 tub of part-skim ricotta cheese (the normal size)
veggies you love (I get 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 1 head of broccoli, 1 package of sliced mushrooms, and 1 green pepper... sometimes I do tomato slices or black olives)
The WW recipe says you can just construct it and rely on the sauce to cook the noodles... but sometimes parts don't cook all the way, so I throw my noodles in the pot and boil them while I chop veggies. Just make sure you stir them until they settle in the water so they don't stick together.
Chop your green peppers and broccoli into tiny little pieces and slice the squash into discs. The veggies can't be too bulky or else they won't lay flat and La Lasagna will be Una Mess.
I sometimes spray a 9x13 pan with olive oil but sometimes I forget. Either way, you need a 9x13 pan and you need to spoon some of your sauce favorita into the bottom of it. Just a thin delicious layer. (I buy Chunky Ragu Mama's Garden Recipe or something like that for $2.50 because it's cheap and I can use the leftover sauce for homemade pizza.)
Then, and this part is very important, put a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. Don't let how complicated that is scare you away from this recipe because it is worth it. Be sure you sort of squeeze off the extra water or else your lasagna might be a little juicy. And by squeeze off I mean squeegie it with your fingers. Also, if the noodles aren't all the way done, that's okay. They'll cook the rest of the way in the baking process.
After the first layer of noodles, you need a layer of veggies. I usually start with my zucchini and yellow squash because I studied food infrastructure in college and am an expert in sturdy vegetable foundations. On the day I made this lasagna I felt like mixing it up a bit and sprinkled on some green peppers. In college they called this "avant garde," which also happens to be the name of an annoying font.
Then put a layer of sauce on top.
The put another layer of noodles, a layer of ricotta cheese, some veggies. (I usually pair broccoli and green peppers with my ricotta layer because, again, it satisfies food infrastructure requirements.)
Put a layer of sauce on top, another layer of noodles, and a layer of mushrooms and green peppers or whatever other veggies you have. This is where I get confused and just sort of wrap things up regardless of where I'm at in the pattern.
At this point you should be out of veggies with three noodles, some sauce (I'm usually cracking into my second jar at this point) and some mozzarella cheese left. Since you want to cap the dish with a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce and a layer of mozzarella cheese -- in that order -- go ahead and arrange that on top.
Put it in the oven at 350-400ish degrees. I don't really know what temperature. Bake it until it smells good and you get hungry. Then check it, and if the cheese is the way you like your cheese to look, it's ready. It should cook for about 30 minutes to cook the veggies, so if your cheese is cooking too fast, lay a piece of foil loosely on top to keep it from burning while the veggies cook.
Let it cool before you cut it or it will be a little drippy and won't keep its shape when you serve it. In our house it gets cut within seconds of leaving the oven.
The best thing about La Lasagna is that you can put it all together the night before, cover it with plastic wrap, throw it in the fridge, and then the next day just toss it in the oven and act like you've slaved away all day.
Chop your green peppers and broccoli into tiny little pieces and slice the squash into discs. The veggies can't be too bulky or else they won't lay flat and La Lasagna will be Una Mess.
I sometimes spray a 9x13 pan with olive oil but sometimes I forget. Either way, you need a 9x13 pan and you need to spoon some of your sauce favorita into the bottom of it. Just a thin delicious layer. (I buy Chunky Ragu Mama's Garden Recipe or something like that for $2.50 because it's cheap and I can use the leftover sauce for homemade pizza.)
Then, and this part is very important, put a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. Don't let how complicated that is scare you away from this recipe because it is worth it. Be sure you sort of squeeze off the extra water or else your lasagna might be a little juicy. And by squeeze off I mean squeegie it with your fingers. Also, if the noodles aren't all the way done, that's okay. They'll cook the rest of the way in the baking process.
After the first layer of noodles, you need a layer of veggies. I usually start with my zucchini and yellow squash because I studied food infrastructure in college and am an expert in sturdy vegetable foundations. On the day I made this lasagna I felt like mixing it up a bit and sprinkled on some green peppers. In college they called this "avant garde," which also happens to be the name of an annoying font.
Then put a layer of sauce on top.
The put another layer of noodles, a layer of ricotta cheese, some veggies. (I usually pair broccoli and green peppers with my ricotta layer because, again, it satisfies food infrastructure requirements.)
Put a layer of sauce on top, another layer of noodles, and a layer of mushrooms and green peppers or whatever other veggies you have. This is where I get confused and just sort of wrap things up regardless of where I'm at in the pattern.
Put it in the oven at 350-400ish degrees. I don't really know what temperature. Bake it until it smells good and you get hungry. Then check it, and if the cheese is the way you like your cheese to look, it's ready. It should cook for about 30 minutes to cook the veggies, so if your cheese is cooking too fast, lay a piece of foil loosely on top to keep it from burning while the veggies cook.
The best thing about La Lasagna is that you can put it all together the night before, cover it with plastic wrap, throw it in the fridge, and then the next day just toss it in the oven and act like you've slaved away all day.
