Like other casseroles, this is brilliant as a make-ahead mid-week dinner. Having friends over right after work? Know it'll be a late night at the office? Prepare your lasagna the night before, cover with foil, and put it in the fridge. Then when you get home, just take the lasagna out of the fridge and set it on the counter to warm a bit as the oven preheats. Then bake as directed.
One of the things I love most about making lasagna is that it is easily adapted to your eating habits and whatever is in the fridge. You can grate zucchini or carrots, dice an onion or chop some garlic and add it along with the mushrooms to the olive oil in step 2. I often add ground beef or good sausage. (Edited to add: my husband points out that obviously if you are adding meat, you are no longer making veggie lasagna.) Feel free experiment. My rule of thumb is: if you're layering it with plenty of cheese, you don't have to worry about whether it will turn out tasty in the end. It will.
Veggie Lasagna with Mushrooms and Spinach
Delicious with fresh bread and a simple salad.
You'll need:
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 8-12 ounces of mushrooms (I prefer baby bellas)
- 4 cups marinara, either homemade or a good store-bought sauce (I am very loyal to Newman's Own Tomato & Basil sauce)
- 16 lasagna noodles (you may need fewer, but better to boil a few extra... it's very annoying to run out in the middle of putting the lasagna together)
- 2 - 15 ounce containers of part-skim ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- Spinach (You can either use fresh or frozen. Honestly, you're baking it up in a lasagna, so unless you have some spinach that desperately needs to be used up, I generally go for frozen. If you're using frozen, take one box of chopped spinach and simply defrost it and then squeeze out the moisture. When I use fresh baby spinach, I use the full 6 ounce bag. Rinse the spinach, chop it, and then steam in a large skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally. Squeeze out excess moisture.)
- 3 cups grated mozzarella
- Oven, preheated to 400 degrees
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (throw in one or two big pinches of salt while heating the water) and add noodles and cook as instructed by box directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Make your mushroom sauce: Heat one or two glugs of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Rinse mushrooms, cut out stems, and slice. When the oil is warm and fragrant, toss in your mushrooms and cook until well-browned. Add your marinara sauce, and reduce heat to low. Let the sauce simmer very lightly while you prepare the rest of your lasagna ingredients.
3. Make your cheese filling: Mix ricotta cheese, egg, kosher salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add your well-squeezed spinach, and mix thoroughly.
4. Now that your ingredients are ready, it's time to layer. Take your lasagna dish and rub the inside lightly with olive oil. Put down one layer of noodles. They don't fit perfectly? Use your kitchen shears (or a knife) to trim them to size, remembering that this is a casserole and no one will notice if they're not perfect. On top of the first layer of noodles, add 1/2 of your mushroom/sauce mixture. Add another layer of noodles. Add 1/2 of your ricotta cheese mixture, followed by 1/2 of your mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles, the rest of the sauce, more noodles, the rest of the ricotta, and the remaining mozzarella. If you have some parmesan cheese hanging around your fridge, feel free to grate some over the top.
5. Cover your lasagna with tin foil.
6. Bake for 30 minutes covered. Remove foil, and bake 20-30 minutes more, until golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven, and cool for about 10 minutes before cutting so that it doesn't slide all over when you try to serve it.
My share of the leftovers for lunch.
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