Layered Zucchini Lasagna(No Noodles!)

Sharon123's Note:

A great recipe from Cooking Light! Here's to zucchini! A great alternative to traditional lasagna!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 4 cups water
• 6 cups sliced zucchini (about 3 medium)
• 1 lb ground round (or use ground turkey, or meatless crumbles)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups reduced-fat spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cups fat-free cottage cheese (may use part ricotta or goat cheese)
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• cooking spray
• 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs, divided
• 1 3/4 cups preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add zucchini; cook 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and cool. Or you may grill or saute the zucchini if you wish.
3. Place the ground beef(or turkey or crumbles) and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until browned, stirring to break up meat. Stir in the spaghetti sauce, salt, basil, and oregano; cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
4. Combine the cottage cheese, parsley, and eggs in a medium bowl.
5. Arrange zucchini slices in a shallow 3-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle the zucchini with half of the breadcrumbs. Spread half of cottage cheese mixture over breadcrumbs; cover with half of the meat mixture and 1 cup mozzarella. Repeat the layers with the remaining breadcrumbs, cottage cheese mixture, and meat mixture; reserve the remaining mozzarella. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella, and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Reviews

[Hill Family]

So good ... I skined the zucchini to see if I could fool the family and it worked - no one had any idea there was no pasta. I made a few changes. I didn't pre cook the zucchini and think that might be why it was a bit extra wet. I used homemade sauce and an extra garlic clove. Made for a great dinner! Thanks

[Chef #1380484]

Light & delicious. I made it because my husband, after gastric bypass surgery, is now at a phase where he can eat ground meat, cooked veggies, tomato sauce, no pasta, and we grow zucchini! so all I changed was I used a little of the tomato sauce as it came out of the jar to smear on the bottom of the casserole, to keep the zucchini from possibly sticking. I added chopped onion to the meat mix & used a good canned red-wine/herb tomato sauce. I broiled the thinly sliced zucchini with a bit of olive oil, s&p, & dried basil, till tender-crisp on 2 pizza pans first. I used low-fat ricotta cheese. I tented the dish w. aluminum foil at first, then removed it once I added the top cheese layer. It came out perfect, delicious, light, and tasted even better the next day. Worlds removed from the heavy, greasy, lasagnas I've had in the past. a real winner!

[kwest82804]

We loved this! I made one change because I was nervous about the zucchini making it watery, so I layered the bottom in noodles and used zucchini as the seconde layer. I broiled the zucchini and really made sure I got as much water squeezed out as possible. It wasn't watery at all. It was delish! Even great the next couple of days! Thanks so much!