In recipes/ Uncategorized

Zucchini Lasagna

Ok so we love Italian food. Like, a lot. But apparently it’s not good to eat pasta everyday. Huh?? So when we saw a healthier version of one of our favorite dishes blowing up on Pinterest, we pretty much knew we had to try it. Honestly, it’s really really good. It was a first for the both of us, but for sure wont be the last. And usually when you hear about homemade lasagna you automatically think a lot of prep time aka nightmare, but it was easy. Promise.

Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
4 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8″ thick
15 oz part skim ricotta
16 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg

Directions:

In a medium saucepan add olive oil, garlic and onion and sauté for about 3 minutes. ( until the garlic is fragrant and onions are soft). Then add the crushed tomatoes, oregano and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low for about 30 minutes, covered.
While the sauce is simmering, prep the zucchini. We used a mandolin to get 1/8″ slices of zucchini. If you don’t have a mandolin, then carefully slice them with a sharp knife. And if you do have a mandolin, we assume we don’t need to tell you how sharp they are. Yikes! After you slice the zucchini, spread them out over paper towels and sprinkle them with salt. The moisture will literally get sucked out of them right before your eyes. It’s a pretty cool trick and its only done because zucchini holds a lot of water. If this isn’t done the zucchini will get watery when it bakes in the oven. And we don’t want watery lasagna now do we? That process takes about 10 minutes. Make sure to blot them when they’re done “sweating”.
In a medium bowl mix the ricotta cheese, Parmesan and egg. Stir well.
When the sauce is ready, start your assembly. Grease a 9 by 13 casserole dish and pour some sauce on the bottom. The next layer is zucchini. Put as many as you need to fit the dish. Then add some of the ricotta mixture, and top with mozzarella cheese. Repeat this process until all the ingredients are gone. We had 3 layers. Your last layer will be the mozzarella and we added a little more parm to top it off.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 375, then take foil off and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes or so before diggin’ in.