Veggie Lasagna with Roasted Tomato Sauce

I’ve wanted to make vegetarian lasagna for quite a while now and finally found the time and, somehow, had all of the ingredients in my kitchen at the same time! Crazy! Really the idea for this came in stages. I often peruse different sites, magazines and cookbooks for potential recipes that I can modify to my liking and style of cooking, and when I came across this Roasted Tomato Sauce recipe, the ideas started flowing. I’ve also been in a serious casseroly/leftovery mood lately, so lasagna was a great fit.

The Sauce:

So pretty!

I started by making the roasted tomato sauce. I cut up the tomatoes and onions, peeled two small heads of garlic, and tossed everything into a roasting pan with a generous amount of olive oil, and salt and pepper. The original recipe used a bell pepper as well, but I don’t fancy bell peppers, so I left it out; it also says to roast for an hour at 450, but mine started to burn after 30 minutes, so just check periodically!

After 30 minutes I took the roasted vegetables out of the oven and poured them into the blender and blended until smooth (I really need to get a food processor; using the blender for cooking purposes doesn’t allow for simultaneous margarita making). I then poured the mixture into a sauce pan with fresh parsley and basil, dried oregano, 1 bay leaf, and a generous amount of course salt and pepper. That’s really it for the sauce! I let it simmer and reduce for about an hour while I got everything else ready.

Standing over this has to be good for the skin!

The Noodles:

After getting the sauce out of the way, prepare 9 lasagna noodles according to package directions. While these are cooking you can start making the filling. After the noodles are done, you can set aside in a small amount of water so they don’t stick together and tear.

The Filling:

I debated what to use for the filling and had lots of ideas. I happened to have mushrooms and zucchini in the fridge, so that was the deciding factor. I chopped the mushrooms and zucchini into small pieces and sauteed them with a little salt and pepper in olive oil, about 8 minutes. While this is cooking, grate the mozzarella.

My mom is terrified of these, ha ha. I absolutely LOVE them!

The Assembly:

Now you are ready to put everything together. Put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Then layer as follows:

          Layer of lasagna noodles

          1/2 ricotta cheese

          1/3 mozzarella cheese

          1/2 mushroom zucchini mixture

          1/2 sauce

Layered goodness!

Repeat this one more time. For the final layer, put sauce first, then mozzarella and parmesan.

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 30-40 minutes or until bubbly and delicious!

Ingredients:

9 Lasagna Noodles

10-12 roma or fruit stand tomatoes (these will give the best flavor), cut in half

1 yellow onion, cut into 8ths and broken up

2 small or heads of garlic (or 1 large)

1/4 cup olive oil

Fresh parsley and basil, chopped (about 1 tbs. of each)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

8 oz white mushrooms, diced

1/2 large package of shitake mushrooms, diced

2 zucchinis, diced

1 lb mozzarella (I used reduced fat and it turned out great)

1 small container of ricotta cheese (I also used reduced fat here)

1/3 – 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

What this meal did to my previously clean kitchen!

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