Elaine McCardel's Zucchini Lasagna

(Picture from The Italian Dish)

This recipe was recommended by Megan T. She found it over at Elaine McCardel's blog,
The Italian Dish. I contacted Elaine to see if she would let me post it here, and she graciously consented. You should definitely check out her blog, especially if you'd like to see some pictures of each step in the recipe.  

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds large zucchini, scrubbed
• 1 quart spaghetti sauce or thick tomato sauce
• 1 cup bread crumbs *
• 1 pound ricotta cheese (more, if you like - the original recipe calls for 2 pounds)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano, basil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 1 pound mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated

Directions:

1. Slice zucchini into long slices.  Cook in boiling water just until limp, about 5 minutes.  Drain on paper towels.
2. Combine ricotta, eggs, parsley, seasoning and half of the parmesan cheese and half of the bread crumbs in a bowl.  Set aside.
3. In a 9x13 pan, spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce.  Sprinkle with a quarter of the bread crumbs.  Arrange layer of zucchini over this. Spoon half of the reserved ricotta mixture on top of the zucchini.  Sprinkle with half the mozzarella cheese.  Arrange the rest of the zucchini over this, layer more tomato sauce and the rest of the bread crumbs and top with remaining ricotta mixture.  Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 1 hour or until top is brown.  Let stand 20 minutes before cutting.

* When using bread crumbs, try making your own. Take any kind of bread you like, even leftover stale bread that you may want to throw away, and place in your food processor and grind until fine. Keep in a plastic container in the fridge and they will last a long time. Fresh bread crumbs are superior to what you can buy in the grocery store.

Lasagna Rolls with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

(Picture from My Recipes.)

This recipe was sent in by Rachel S. She found it at My Recipes.

Ingredients:

• Lasagna:
• 8 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 4 teaspoons olive oil 
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 
• 1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
• 1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach 
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt  
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Sauce:
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained 
• 1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, undrained
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. To prepare lasagna, cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, mushrooms, spinach, and 3 garlic cloves; sauté 5 minutes or until onion and mushrooms are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in cheeses, 2 tablespoons basil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper.
3. To prepare sauce, place vinegar and remaining ingredients in a blender; process until smooth.
4. Place cooked noodles on flat surface; spread 1/4 cup cheese mixture over each noodle. Roll up noodles, jelly-roll fashion, starting with short side. Place the rolls, seam sides down, in a shallow 2-quart microwave-safe dish. Pour 1/4 cup sauce over each roll, and cover with heavy-duty plastic wrap. Microwave at high 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons basil.

Tofu Spinach Lasagna

(Don't mind the cut down the middle of my piece of lasagna...I was really excited to start eating it and then decided I should probably snap a picture before I forgot.)

I made a post about this amazing lasagna way back in July 2011. Since then I have adapted it, which means now I can post it on the blog without copyright issues. I adapted it from a recipe found in The Vegan Table Cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.

Seriously, this lasagna is so good (as in, my hubby and toddler both devoured it). Lactose intolerant friendly, and might I mention, a whole lot cheaper to make than the other meat and cheese types. (Meat and 3 kinds of cheese add up v.s. buying a package of tofu.)

Ingredients:

• 9 lasagna noodles (about half of a 1 lb pkg), regular or no-boil...either is fine
• About 9-12 oz. of fresh spinach, chopped, blanched, and drained
• 1 pkg firm tofu (16 oz)
• 1 Tb. sugar
• 1/4 c. rice milk...or any kind of milk really (regular, soy, etc)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tb. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. dried basil (or you can use 2 Tb. fresh, minced basil)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-24 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce, I prefer a tomato and basil type but any kind will work

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package.
2. Meanwhile, blanch spinach.
3. Next put the tofu, sugar, rice milk, garlic powder, lemon juice, basil, and salt in a blender and blend until thick and smooth. This is going to be your "tofu ricotta," as the author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau calls it.
4. Put the "tofu ricotta" and the blanched spinach together in a large bowl and mix together.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (my oven heats up really fast...so to make it less hot for me in the kitchen I wait until I absolutely have to before turning it on. If it takes your oven a while, then turn it on as step 1 in the directions.)
6. Now it's lasagna assembly time. Use a 9 by 13 baking dish. Start with a little bit of the spaghetti sauce and cover the bottom of the pan. Then put 3 noodles down, covered with 1/2 the "tofu ricotta." Repeat the layers with about 1/2 of the remaining sauce, 3 more noodles, and the rest of the "tofu ricotta." Last put on 3 more noodles and use the rest of the sauce to cover the noodles up.
7. Bake for 40 minutes.

Tofu Spinach Lasagna

The recipe is from The Vegan Table Cookbook. It is meatless and cheese-less, which is good news for our lactose-intolerant or milk allergy friends out there. Unfortunately, I can't post it here because of copyright laws, etc.

It's your basic lasagna, but instead of using cheese she blends up her tofu with milk (or milk substitute), garlic powder, lemon juice, and some other stuff---making a tofu "ricotta."

Please go check out the book from your library and try it out! If you do, I've added some notes on what I did.

A few things about this recipe:

1. When I used my 2.2 qt dish only 2 lasagna noodles fit per layer, and by the time I was done I had used 6 noodles.
2. If you aren't used to eating tofu, or have some tofu-phobia in your family use this recipe because you can't even tell you are eating tofu!

3. My layering got a bit off and I didn't end up with sauce on top, but it's lasagna and it doesn't really matter how you do your layering as long as it's not noodles on top.

4. Make sure you chop that spinach before blanching it! I tried using whole spinach once and chopped is much better (smaller pieces, not as stringy).