Garden Lasagna
As an Italian Boy, I’ve been eating lasagna my entire life. And it’s all the same: red sauce, ricotta, and pasta. Don’t get me wrong, I love tradition and I love traditional lasagna…I just wanted to spice things up a bit!
This bb is packed with veggies and herbed ricotta and Italian sausage and just perfect for a cool night in. And of course the best thing about lasagna is that the leftovers are better than when it’s fresh! YAY!
Garden Lasagna Recipe
Don't be fooled by the veg that this got…there's still Italian sausage in here, cause who doesn't love a lil sausage in their life?!
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Ingredients
FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE!
- 1 package lasagna noodles
- 1 pound Italian sausage, uncased
- 1 – 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, DON'T DRAIN!!!
- 1 – 15 oz can petit diced tomatoes
- 1 – 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 pound button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 yellow onion, medium, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅛ cup dry red wine…this homo loves cooking with Chianti
- ¼ tsp lemon zest
- ½ tsp sugar, white granulated
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp basil, fresh, chopped
- 1 small package spinach, fresh
- parmesan, grated, to taste
- garlic salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- oregano, dried, for garnish
FOR THE CHEESE LAYER!
- 16 oz ricotta, part-skim
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup parmesan, grated
- ¼ cup mozzarella, shredded
- 1 Tbsp basil, fresh, chopped
- 1 Tbsp parsley, fresh, chopped
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a stock pot over low heat, add whole tomatoes with juice, petit diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and wine. I like to take the whole tomatoes out of the can individually and break them up with my hand. Be careful, they're squirters! Season to taste with parmesan, garlic salt, and pepper.
- On another burner, heat a large pan over medium heat with some olive oil in it. Add Italian sausage and cook until browned through.
- To the sausage, add onion and mushrooms and sauté until shrinkage occurs for mushrooms LOL. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Pour sausage mixture into tomato sauce along with sugar, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, and a bunch of spinach. Taste and adjust, if needed, with parmesan, garlic salt, and pepper. As this continues to heat the spinach will wilt; keep adding until satisfied.
- While that's on a low simmer, you can start making your cheese layer!
- In a large bowl, combine all cheese layer ingredients and season to taste with garlic salt and pepper. Time to build, baby!
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Make sure there's a baking sheet on the bottom-most rack to catch any drippings.
- Taste your sauce one last time to adjust any seasoning. Gather your sauce from the stove (careful, it's HOT), cheese mixture, lasagna noodles, the rest of the mozzarella, and a greased 9×13 glass casserole dish.
- Spoon a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish, then a layer of lasagna noodles (feel free to break them up to fit them in and fill gaps), then a layer of cheese. Repeat sauce > lasagna > cheese. Last layer is sauce > lasagna > sauce. Then top it all with mozzarella cheese. Spray tinfoil with cooking spray so it doesn't stick to the mozzarella. Seal tightly and bake on middle rack for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes are up, remove tinfoil from casserole dish and sprinkle top with dried oregano.
- Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 minutes, rotating dish halfway through.
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing up so lasagna gets a chance to set.
- BUON APPETITO, BITCHES!!!
Notes
JUST THE TIPS!
1.) Set up your ‘mis en place.’ This means do what the recipe tells you to do to the individual ingredients, measure them out, and then place them in separate little bowls/dishes/what-have-you. When it’s time to build the recipe, you have everything measured and ready to go. It makes the entire process so much easier and more enjoyable!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Equipment:
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