Rustic Lasagna October 19, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Food & Drink, Vegetarian Recipes.trackback
We enjoyed a rustic vegetarian lasagna last night made without pre-boiling the noodles. Delicious, easy, filling, and nutritious.
Rustic One-Step Lasagna
Lasagna ~ Public Domain Clip Art
8-16 oz. lasagna noodles, uncooked
15-32 oz. ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
10 pkg. frozen spinach, squeezed dry
16 oz. mozzarella, grated
2-3 carrots, grated
28-32 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 13 x 9 (or larger) baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
Combine ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella (reserve 1 cup), grated carrot, and spinach. Mix well.
Note: if you love ricotta cheese, or are using a larger pan with more noodles, use 32 oz. Otherwise, 15 oz. is plenty.
Mix spaghetti sauce with 1 cup water. Spread 1/2 cup on bottom of prepared baking dish. Place dry lasagna noodles side by side on top of sauce ~ noodles should almost touch, but not overlap.
Note: in a 13×9 pan, 3 noodles will fit across in each layer. If you have a slightly larger pan, you may be able to fit 4 noodles across, and one at the end, for a total of 5 noodles per layer. If so, stir another 1/2 cup of water into the spaghetti sauce before continuing.
Spoon 1/3 of the cheese mixture over noodles and spread evenly. Spoon 1/3 of the tomato sauce over the cheese. Repeat layers twice more: noodles, cheese mixture, sauce.
Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake one hour. Remove foil, sprinkle with reserved mozzarella, and bake 15 minutes longer until noodles are tender. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.
Variations:
1. Sauté zucchini and/or summer squash with onion and/or green pepper. Add to spaghetti sauce before layering.
2. Substitute frozen broccoli for the spinach.
3. Substitute cottage cheese for ricotta.
Note: I try to finish both the cheese mixture and sauce while doing the top layer, but sometimes you run out of pan before you run out of ingredients. If so, be creative with any left-over ingredients: lasagna roll ups, stuffed shells, baked ziti, spinach rice casserole, etc.
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Spirit Lights The Way 
*holds out bowl with puppy dog look on face* Please could I have some?
It would be delicious with one of your favorite red wines. 🙂
I always make a huge pan and we love to share.
Sounds FABULOUS, Nancy!
One of our faves . . . BFF would rather I omit the spinach, but he always enjoys it! 🙂
We froze 1/2 of it in 2 portion servings. I love having food I can just pull out of the freezer and serve with a salad and bread.
Easy!
Honestly now!
Where do you GET these recipes??!!
This sounds amazing!
*#*
It is delish!
Most of them are recipes which featured meat that I revised when we became vegetarians. I took all my favorites and asked:
What could take the place of meat so the meat would not be missed by meat lovers?
This would definitely feed that gang of yours when they visit.
That does look good. I also like using portabellos.
We don’t eat mushrooms either. 😉
I’ve never made lasagna without cooking the noodles. It’s not starchy?
I’ve cooked it this way for so long (30 years) that I don’t really have a frame of reference for comparison ~ we rarely order lasagna out because it almost always has meat in it.
I can say that this is one of our favorite pasta dishes.
Worth a try.
I also use broccoli in the lasagna. And if I don’t have spinach, then kale. Enjoy!