Zucchini Lasagna

In my mind lasagna was a great way to use up most of the zucchini that I’d picked up at the farmers’ market over the weekend. In reality it was a great way to use up two zucchini, and one of them was a really little guy. Two down, four to go. Awesome! Maybe I’ll make zucchini bread. Or zucchini pancakes. Or zucchini pie. Or I could be charitable and give them to the guy begging for change by Lake Calhoun who somehow manages to keep his handlebar mustache perfectly maintained. I guess I have a lot of options.

Even though this lasagna didn’t do much in terms of clearing out my zucchini stash, it did clear a few other items from my kitchen – a bag of frozen spinach, a jar of tomato sauce made by my aunt Amy, and a bit of cheese. Plus, it tasted good, so I’ll count it as a success. Most of the flavor came from the tomato sauce and the fresh ricotta, but if you don’t have a good sauce to use, a few fresh herbs and a can of plain tomato sauce should work. I thought about adding fresh basil or oregano, but a trip to the store would have conflicted with my clearing out the kitchen agenda. This lasagna is nothing earth-shattering, but it’s simple and satisfying. I’d put it somewhere between my failed pre-marathon eggplant lasagna and the more recent spinach lasagna. While the spinach lasagna was excellent and definitely worth making, this version is less time-consuming, which is preferable on a 90+ degree day when you want to keep the hot oven/stove time to a minimum but for some reason still feel compelled to make lasagna.

Zucchini Lasagna

Note: all of these amounts are rough estimates, so feel free to play around and improvise

2-3 small zucchini

10 oz. chopped, frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture

1 cup fresh ricotta

A few ounces of parmesan

1 pint tomato sauce (or more)

6 no boil lasagna noodles

Makes 4-6 servings in an 8X8 baking dish

All of the ingredients ready for layering.

Line an 8X8 baking dish with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce. Top with noodles then more sauce.

Cover the noodles with zucchini and spinach.

Then ricotta and parmesan. I personally could have gone for a little more cheese, maybe mozzarella or provolone, but I didn’t have any around. Oh well, less guilt.