A Really Good Vegetable Lasagne

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

lasagne sheets, fresh or instant
200g mozzarella cheese, or parmesan

Spicy tomato sauce – arrabbiata
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 fresh chilli, medium, finely diced
1 C pitted olives
2 tbsp capers, drained
4 C ripe tomatoes, diced (or equivalent)
handful fresh basil
salt & pepper

Grilled vegetables
use what you have here, such as:
2 zucchini
1 eggplant
1 red capsicum
small wedge pumpkin
handful mushrooms
greens eg. kale, spinach, silverbeet

Lemon Ricotta
500g fresh ricotta
rind and juice of 1 lemon
small handful basil, sliced
salt and pepper

Summary

When one of our customers wrote in telling us they’d found a recipe for the World’s Best Vegetable Lasagna, we thought gee that’s a big call. But after giving the recipe a bash with some tasty seasonal veg, we do agree it’s totally delicious and definitely worth sharing here. Mostly on account of the lemon ricotta (what a genius idea, sorry bechamel) and the most excellent spicy tomato sauce. A pretty fabulous lasagne, really! Here’s our adapted version.

Really Good Vegetable Lasagne

Make the sauce. This (along with cooking some veggies) can be made ahead of time, possibly even in a large quantity for several different meals). Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic, and chilli and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add olives, capers & fresh tomatoes, and cook a couple minutes more before adding the rest of the ingredients. If you’re out of fresh tomatoes, replace with a couple of tins or small bottles of crushed tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, lower the heat and let simmer for a half-hour or more with a lid on.

Grill or bake whichever veggies you have to use – zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, mushrooms, kale, pumpkin etc. Slice evenly and coat them with a little olive oil and salt, lightly roasting them under the grill or in a griddle pan or on a tray in the oven. As a guide, try 1-2 zucchini, 1 eggplant, 1 capsicum and a half bunch of silverbeet or spinach (this doesn’t need roasting) for a medium sized lasagne.

Mix ricotta ingredients together in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce, then add a layer of lasagna, a layer of lemon-ricotta, then grilled vegetables, fresh greens, then cover with a layer of that delicious tomato sauce. Repeat 2-3 times. Top the last layer with the rest of the vegetables, the tomato sauce, the lemon-ricotta and the grated mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until crispy golden on top.

Recipe adapted with thanks from Green Kitchen Stories.