Dear Lal, I can't believe it has been over a year since I tried your delicious vegetable lasagne at one of your guys's dinner parties around Chritmas 2013. We had just started to become friends and your cooking skills were one more thing that convinced me what a great person you are :) Anyways, after bugging you for the recipe for months, it took me now so long to recreate. I had to make some "cultural" adjustments, as not every cheese was available here in Germany. Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Note: I call this the "American style lasagne" because in America you use Ricotta cheese instead of Bechamel sauce (which is more European style). Also, it is a little hard to find Fontinella cheese (which is a north American cheese) or Asiago cheese in Germany, so I substituted with other semi-hard cheeses. As for the veggies, I added a zucchini and I am sure you can add/substitute anything you like, but what I really enjoyed was, that the pieces were big.
Ingredients:
- 1-2 jars pastasauce (tomatoes)
- 1 box lasagne noodles
- 500 g (16 oz) ricotta cheese
- 500 g morzarella cheese, shredded
- 250 g fontinella chesse, shredded (or subsitute with manchego)
- 250 g asiago cheese, shredded (or substitute with pecorino romano)
- 2 teaspoons thyme, chopped
- 2 teaspoons oregano, chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 red pepper, cut in big pieces
- 1 green pepper, cut in big pieces
- 1 zucchini, cut in thin stripes
- 1 onion, cut into half rings
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt, pepper
Preparation:
Preheat oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit.- Boil the lasagne noodles in salted water for about 3-5 min each and lay them on a plate. Do not lay them on top of each other as they would stick. The noodles don't need to be fully cooked, just softened.
- Make a ricotta cheese mix (this would be where Europeans use bechamel sauce). Add the ricotta chesse, the egg, about 1/4 of each of the other cheeses, and the herbs to a bowl. Mix well, salt and pepper.
- Fry up the vegetables (peppers, zucchini, onion, garlic) for about 5-10 minutes (depending on how big the pieces are). The vegetables are not supposed to be cooked fully, you only want to bring out some of the flavor.
- Spread a little of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the caserole and then start layering your lasagne: First, add a layer of lasagne noodles. Second, spread a thin layer of the ricotta mix on top of the noodles. Third, add a layer of tomato sauce on top of the ricotta mix. Fourth, sprinkle some of the veggies on top. Fifth, sprinkle some of the shredded cheese on top (2 parts morzarella to 1 part of each of the other cheeses). Repeat this about 3 times. The last layer should be noodles, ricotta mix, sauce and sprinkled cheese (without veggies).
- Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes till the cheese on top is melted and golden brown.
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| Ricotta cheese mix |
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| Last layer ends with shredded cheese |
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| Dinnerparty November 2013 |
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