Sunday, August 10, 2014

Garden Fresh Zucchini Lasagna



The garden has been producing amazing amounts of zucchini, so much so, we are having a hard time keeping up to eating it all. I have grilled, fried, sauteed, shredded, mixed, baked, breaded, well, you get the picture. We have eaten a lot of zucchini. So, it is time to start putting some away for the winter. What a treat it will be to pull out a pan of this amazing lasagna in the dead of winter and be transported back to summer.

Sauce:

5 Red Peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 Green Peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 White Onions, coarsely chopped
1 Zucchini, coarsely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
3 Ribs of Celery, chopped
2 cans of petite tomatoes
2 Cups water
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
3 Bay Leaves
2 tsp Dried Basil
2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 T Fresh Thyme
1 T Fresh Tarragon
1 T Fresh Sage

In a large sauce pot, cook onions, peppers, celery, garlic, zucchini for 15 minutes or until everything is softened. Add the herbs, tomatoes, water, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until the vegetables are very soft, nearly 90 minutes.

Remove bay leaves. Blend with immersion blender or a regular blender. If you use a regular blender, you will need to do it in batches. Be very careful not to splash the sauce on you.

Once blended, adjust seasoning if needed. ( Add more salt, pepper, herbs to reach the flavour you like.)


Filling:

2 48 oz containers of cottage cheese
1 56 oz container of ricotta
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed, and squeezed to remove any water
1 tsp basil

Just dump everything into a large bowl and mix.

Layers:

Zucchini sliced on a mandolin. The number of zucchini needed is going to depend on what size your zucchini are. Because ours are from the garden, they are on the large size. If you are using zucchini from the grocery store, they are a lot smaller, so you'll need about a dozen. From the garden, 4-5.

2 boxes of pre-cooked lasagna noodles.
6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Assemble the lasagna:

1. Spoon enough sauce into the pan to cover the bottom well.




2. Place a layer of zucchini.






3. Spoon a thin layer of the filling.















5. Place a layer of noodles.











6. Place a thin layer of sauce.
7. Place a thin layer of zucchini and start the process all over until the pan is filled.
8. Top with a layer of sauce.
9. Top with a layer of mozzarella cheese.












I par-bake mine at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Because I use aluminum pans, I let them cool and them cover with an aluminum lid.  This made 4 pans of lasagna. Off to the freezer they go.



Note: You could also substitute eggplant for zucchini. I made a pan of that. You can also forget about the pasta for an all vegetable lasagna. Experiment!