Vegetable Lasagna

My friend Emily (hey...it was a popular name in the early 80s!) has long been a very sweet supporter of Corcoran Street Kitchen and is always sending me nice notes and comments about the recipes that she's made.  I was so excited when Em decided to send over some pictures from her latest kitchen adventure for the blog.  It is a Vegetable Lasagna that she's adapted from Good Housekeeping's September 2013 issue. As a dedicated carnivore, Vegetable Lasagna always seems so boring.  Not so with this recipe.  Here we have plump whole tomatoes and great layers of numerous vegetables to give a heartiness to this dish that other version are lacking.  This would be a great choice to make in advance and heat up for a weeknight dinner and I could certainly see making this for a small party of friends to warm up on a cold night.  The fact that it would also double as a great lunch makes it all that much better.  I can't wait to make it myself! 

So this took me a little longer to make than the original recipe suggested (correct times are below), but it's delicious, easy and will feed this single gal for almost a week. I think. Great heated up in the microwave and good for dinner parties.

Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients:
10 oz. frozen (thawed) spinach, squeezed dry (I defrosted it in the microwave for six minutes and then squished it with a paper towel) I would actually use more, but they sell it in 10 oz frozen squares. More power with more spinach, though.
15 oz part-skim ricotta
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 jar of marinara sauce
6 cooked lasagna noodles (cook them and then lay them out on wax paper while you prepare the other materials)
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
12 oz. plum tomatoes, thinly sliced (I used 1 and a half regular tomatoes, thinly sliced)
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
4 oz. part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to the package directions and lay out in strips on wax paper while you prepare other food.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
3. In large bowl, stir together spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

4. In baking dish - layer away!  Start with a scoop of marinara on the bottom so that the lasagna doesn't stick to the bottom.  Then add a layer of noodles for the base. 

Next layer on the mushrooms, then ricotta mixture, tomatoes, zucchini, mozzarella.

Now repeat with a scoop of marinara,

Then a layer of noodles...

And the rest of the vegetables/ricotta mixture and a final topping of cheese.

5. Cover with foil (At this stage, the lasagna can be refrigerated up to 1 day before baking).
6. Bake, covered, for 20 minutes (if refrigerated, bake 30 min).
7. Remove foil and bake another 20 min. or until bubbling.

Enjoy!

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