And It Begins (With a Lasagna)!

I thought lasagna would be a good place to start. Oh my god, do I love lasagna. Lasagna makes me go into Garfield mode, where I dig my hands into the pan and force the food into my mouth as quickly as possible. It’s easy and versatile (I make a bunch of different kinds) and you can pretty much throw whatever you want in it.


Tonight’s was spinach and basil with a bunch of really good zucchini and some roasted butternut squash I got at the Southside farmer’s market. I had made a huge pot of tomato sauce the night before, so I used that with some whole wheat noodles. I always use cottage cheese instead of ricotta. Now, I know this is less-than-authentic, but seriously, when you can put away as much food as much as I can, you have to cut some fat. You know, or else. So anyway.


No real measurements, because making lasagna is just a method anyway.


So, preheat the oven to 350. If you live in a crappy apartment like ours, begin this st...oh, four hours before you want to cook. I’m kidding, mostly. Next, cook those noodles. I know they say you can bake lasagna without boiling the noodles first, but I’ve never tried it and would rather take the time to boil the damn noodles than ruin a perfectly good lasagna.


Okay. Throw a bunch of cottage cheese, an egg and a handful of fresh basil into your food processor. I always put a clove of garlic in this mixture too. Process this until it’s smooth and I promise you, you won’t even miss the ricotta.


Okay, now put a pan on the stove with some olive oil and garlic. Let it get nice and warm. Throw in a bunch of cubed zucchini. Cook it for a few minutes until it softens up a bit. Add a few big handfuls of baby spinach, stir, and remove it from the heat. The hot zucchini will help wilt the spinach. In this step, you could really use any vegetables you wanted: onions, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, whatever. This is just what I’d picked up at the farmer’s market. At this point, I mixed in the already-roasted butternut squash. To roast a butternut squash, cut it in half, scrape the innards out, cut off the hard outer shell and cube the flesh. Toss with some olive oil and salt and bake it for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Anyway, give the spinach a few minutes to wilt, then dump all the sauce you’d planned to use (minus a few tablespoons) into the veggies. Mix that shit up.


Now you’re ready to start assembling.

Spray the hell out of your pan with cooking spray, because lasagna loves to stick. On top of that, spread the reserved tomato sauce.

Okay.

Put down enough lasagna noodles to cover the bottom. In a 13x9 pan, this will be three. On top of that, spread 1/3 of your sauce-and-veggies mixture. Top with 1/2 of the basil-and-cottage-cheese mixture, a handful of shredded mozzarella (or slices of fresh mozzarella, if you’re putting on the ritz) and then top with three more noodles. Repeat the process. On the topmost noodles, spread some sauce, more mozzarella, and some parmesan if you’re into that. This method of layering makes for a more-filling-less-noodle lasagna; if you’re more into the noodles, do it in three layers, using 1/3 of the mixtures each time.


Bake it, covered, for about 45 mintues. Uncover, bake for 10-15 more until it’s all bubbly, and then eat it as soon as humanly possible. Also, drink (cheap red) wine, as we just did with this lasagna.


Voila!


Robbo’s review:



7 of a possible 10 hot dogs. A good score, but he said he liked the full-fat stuff better. That's what I get for forcing him to eat all those vegetables anyway.