Zucchini Eggplant Lasagna

Yet another awesome recipe! One of these days we are going to have a really shitty meal I think. It is just karma. We have eggplants from the garden that needed to be used, so I picked this recipe since it sorta combines Matty's love of eggplant parm and my love of all things pasta. The only time consuming part was dealing with the eggplants. We actually put this all together Tuesday night and then baked it off yesterday which worked fine. And can I say I love these oven ready lasagna noodles! So much less work and so easy to work with! And it makes me feel like I have to worry less about my other ingredients being too wet. We had some fresh mushrooms and frozen spinach that needed to be used so we threw those in as well. I also have an eggplant question for any of my green-thumbed readers, we have some that grew under leaf cover and so they are a weird orangey-yellowy color. Are they still ok to eat? Also, "1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped" means 1 cup before you chop it right?

Ok, so here goes:

Zucchini Eggplant Lasagna













This recipe makes use of summer-fresh produce in a meatless entrée. Yield: 12 servings (Yeah . . . ok so I would say we would be able to feed 6 with this. With a salad and garlic bread, maybe 8?) Cooking Light, AUGUST 2008 (Their pic is on the left, ours on the right)

Water tally: 5.8 ounces.

1 large eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
(5-6 mushrooms, sliced)
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (we used ~1/4 tsp dried since I misread the recipe)
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
(1/4 tsp crushed red pepper for a little extra bite)
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) part-skim ricotta cheese
(~1/3 cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained)
Cooking spray
1 (8-ounce) package precooked lasagna noodles
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (I cut it crosswise into rounds like the eggplant, not sure exactly what they wanted)
2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (we used about 6-8 oz since that was all we had)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. (We did all the building steps the night before and then baked the night of.)

2. Arrange eggplant slices in a single layer on several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt; let stand 15 minutes.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; sauté 2 minutes (we sauteed until they were softening and then added the mushrooms until they started to soften), stirring frequently. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, oregano, red pepper (this is where we added the crushed red pepper), and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes (we simmered about 30 min while we ate dinner Tuesday night, the sauce seemed pretty wet and longer tastes better anyway), stirring occasionally.

4. Combine basil, ricotta (this is where we added the spinach), and remaining 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl. Spread 1/2 cup tomato mixture (used about 1 cup here) into the bottom of a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 noodles over tomato mixture; top with half of eggplant and half of zucchini (I did this in two layers, a layer of eggplant rounds then a layer of zucchini rounds). Spread ricotta mixture over vegetables; cover with 4 noodles. Spread 1 cup tomato mixture over noodles (I used about 1 1/2 cups here); layer with remaining eggplant and zucchini slices. Arrange remaining 4 noodles over vegetables, and spread remaining tomato mixture over noodles. Top evenly with mozzarella. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray. (Here we put it in the fridge overnight) Bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 25 minutes or until browned. Cool for 5 minutes.

CALORIES 216 (32% from fat); FAT 7.7g (sat 4.2g,mono 2g,poly 0.4g); IRON 1.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 21mg; CALCIUM 247mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.7g; SODIUM 393mg; PROTEIN 12.7g; FIBER 4.2g