After the zucchini bread, I wanted to cook a main dish. I was thinking of just adding the zuke to a lasagna recipe since we already had all the ingredients to make that in the cupboard.
Before starting to cook, I took a quick zip around the internet and I’m glad I did. Thanks to this recipe on The Italian Dish, I discovered that you can use zucchini in the place of noodles in lasagna! My variation on her recipe is below. I’m not much for measuring when it comes to cooking, so use your best judgement for how much to use.
Spinach Zucchini Lasagna
adapted from The Italian Dish
1 monstrous zucchini
1 jar tomato sauce (or homemade tomato sauce once the tomatoes come in)
1 bag/box frozen spinach
Bread crumbs
8 ounces ricotta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
handful of fresh basil, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated (around half of a bag or thin slices of fresh)
Slice zucchini into long, thin slices (like lasagna noodles). Cook in boiling water just until limp, about 5 minutes, then drain.
Dethaw the spinach and squeeze most of the water out of it. Mix together the eggs, ricotta, spinach, salt, pepper, basil, and parsley.
Layer like you make lasagna: start with tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish, sprinkle some bread crumbs on top, lay out zucchini slices, cover with spinach ricotta mixture, sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan, then more tomato sauce, etc… On the very top I finished with some more breadcrumbs and cheese.
Results:
Amazing! I don’t think I’ll ever use pasta again in lasagna! I’m wondering how many times I can make this without getting sick of it. I can’t imagine it happening.
