Mile-High Meatless Lasagna Pie

Redsie's Note:

I just love lasagna! This one is great - it's loaded with vegetables... and cheese! I love the spinach in this dish! I adapted this from a recipe from BH&G Biggest Book of Italian Recipes. I made it as directed in the recipe (in a spingform pan - which looks great when you have company over!) but you can bake it in a 13x9 baking dish.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 45 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 8

Yield: 1.0 lasagna

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, finely chopped (2 cups)
• 1 red pepper, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 2 (6 ounce) packages prewashed baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons snipped fresh basil
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 (15 ounce) carton low-fat ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 (26 ounce) jar tomato and basil pasta sauce
• 14 dried lasagna noodles
• 2 cups shredded lowfat mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain lasagna noodles; rinse with cold water and drain well. Lay noodles in a single layer on a sheet of foil.
3. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots, zucchini, red pepper and half of the garlic. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Transfer to a bowl. Heat remaining oil in the same skillet. Add mushrooms and remaining garlic. Cook and stir about 5 minutes or until tender. Gradually add spinach. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Using a slotted spoon, transfer spinach mixture to medium bowl; stir in basil.
4. In a bowl, combine egg, ricotta, parmesan, salt and black pepper.
5. To assemble pie, spread 1/2 cup of the pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9-inch sprinform pan. Arrange three to four of the lasagna noodles over the sauce, trimming and overlapping as necessary to cover sauce with one layer. Top with half of the spinach mixture. Top with half of the ricotta mixture. Top with another layer of noodles. Spread with half of the remaining pasta sauce. Top with all of the zucchini-carrot mixture. Sprinkle with half of the mozzarella cheese. Top with another layer of the lasagna noodles. Layer with remaining spinach mixture and ricotta mixture. Top with another layer of noodles and remaining sauce (you may have extra noodles). Gently press down pie with back of spatula.
6. Place springform pan on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 1 hour or until heated through, topping with remaining mozzarella cheese for the last 15 minutes of baking. Cover and let stand on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. Carefully remove side of springform pan.

Reviews

[MelNTex]

Great recipe, thanks. I won't use all the layers next time, turned out kind of dry, ran out of sauce and cheese for all the layers. Flavors of spinach and mushrooms were wonderful. Thanks

[Ms*Bindy]

Turned out perfectly. I used a bag of frozen spinach, and 1/2 soy cheese. Other than that, I followed closely, and was happy with the results. I even made it in the spring form pan. I'm not sure I would do that again. It was a little fiddly to trim the noodles to fit....but it does allow the lasagne to be much higher! I'll still probably just make in a regular pan in the future.

[Cilantro in Canada]

This is a delicious lasagna. I pretty much followed the recipe except, I added a little vegetable bouillon and ground black pepper to the carrot and mushroom mixtures. I was out of parmesan cheese, so I used havarti instead. This makes a huge pan full(I used a 9x13) and I skipped the last layer of pasta and sauce. Even my 8 year old who hates mushrooms and spinach loved this. Next time I will double the ingredients and try to freeze one. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.