I had been daydreaming about making a
fresh vegetable lasagna all summer. I was thrilled with the results of my
daydreaming, as was Nick. You need nothing more to complete this meal than
good-quality Italian bread and olive oil for dipping. It's fun to use a combination of both
red and yellow tomatoes. Don’t be alarmed if when you remove the lasagna from the oven and it
looks like it’s swimming in liquid; fresh vegetables naturally produce this
liquid during the cooking process. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes to allow the juices to
settle with the other ingredients.
Summer's Fresh Vegetable Lasagna
2 eggs
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Several grindings of freshly ground
black pepper
4–6 medium red and/or yellow tomatoes,
sliced
1 additional tomato, chopped, for top
of lasagna
About 2 cups fresh basil leaves
6 pieces no-boil (also called oven
ready) lasagna noodles
About 2 cups shredded zucchini
1 pound mozzarella, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs.
Add ricotta cheese, ¼ cup Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper; stir until well
combined.
3. Line the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking
pan with half of the sliced tomatoes and completely cover tomatoes with half of
the basil leaves. Top basil leaves with 3 lasagna noodles. Spread half of the
ricotta mixture over lasagna noodles. It won’t completely cover the noodles,
but don’t worry, it spreads out during cooking. Top ricotta mixture with 1 cup
of shredded zucchini and top zucchini with half of the mozzarella cheese.
4.
Repeat layers, starting with another
layer of tomatoes. Top the last layer of mozzarella with remaining ¼ cup of
Parmesan; sprinkle the top of lasagna with kosher salt and top with chopped
tomato.
5.
Cover with foil and bake for 45
minutes. Remove foil and baked an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Switch oven temperature to broil and broil until slightly golden
brown.
8 to 10 servings
