The first Sunday dinner with our new German daughter, the vegetarian, and my husband, the unabashed carnivore. Hmmm…. What to serve? Spent the day puttering in the kitchen and came up with my own version of vegetarian lasagna. Liked it so much, I thought I’d pass it on! (Note: Ours got gobbled up so fast, I didn’t have a chance to get a photograph, so I borrowed one online — thanks, Cooking Training Center!)

For one 9×12 pan of lasagna, you will need …

9 Barilla pasta sheets
12 oz ricotta cheese
2 eggs
large bunch fresh spinach, large stems removed.
2 whole zucchini, “coined”
1 red pepper, cut in strips
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 can (14-16 oz) diced tomatoes (mine was Furmanos with basil and oregano)
3 cloves garlic (peeled and chopped)
small handful basil, chopped fine (or 1 T dried)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp garlic powder
8 oz mozzarella, shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)

Step 1: Sauce. Heat 2 Tbls olive oil in large fry pan, add garlic and stir to flavor oil. Stir in zucchini, red pepper, and onion. Cook about 8 minutes, or until veggies start to brown. Add tomatoes and cook about 10 minutes more, turning down heat to simmer. Remove from heat and pulse through food processor until “spreadable” but veggies are still a bit chunky.

Step 2: Cheese. Combine ricotta, eggs, basil, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Beat until fluffy. Set aside.

Step 3: Lightly spray lasagna pan. Put about a cup of sauce in the bottom, spread around.

Step 4: Put first 3 noodles on bottom layer; they will expand and should not quite touch. Next put a generous “sploop” of cheese mixture on each noodle and spread to cover. Layer 1/2 your spinach on top. Pour 1/3 remaining sauce over this, then 1/3 your mozzarella.

Step 5: Repeat Step 4.

Step 6: Put remaining layer of noodles on top. Pour remaining sauce over all, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

We served this with salad and rosemary bread. Yum. Craig said we could make it again — high praise, from this carnivore!

Photo Credit: We borrowed this one.