Lasagna With Caramelized Onions, Roasted Peppers & Squash

"A labor of love (or something like that). It takes a few hours to put together if you're starting from scratch--I generally use leftover roasted veggies/onionssauce if possible, but it's well worth it however you make it! Of course, you can simplify and skip making your own noodles, buy prepared marinara sauce, and use leftover roasted veggies, whatever floats your boat!"
 
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Ready In:
3hrs
Ingredients:
17
Serves:
8

ingredients

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directions

  • Make the pasta:

  • Combine flour, salt, and basil in food processor and pulse once or twice to mix. Add eggs all at once and process 30 seconds or so till dough pulls away from the sides and forms a ball. Add more flour if dough is too sticky, or more water (by the DROP) if dough is grainy. Wrap in plastic and set aside on the counter to rest for at least 30 minutes.
  • Make the veggie layer:

  • Preheat oven to 400°F Drizzle a large baking sheet with 1 T. olive oil.
  • Spread squash and bell pepper on the sheet and drizzle with remaining 1 T. olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or paprika) to taste, toss gently and roast in preheated 400°F oven for 20 minutes or so (till very fragrant and not burned -- the longer you roast them, the better, but don't let them burn!) When done, transfer to a bowl; set aside.
  • Meanwhile, in a large (12" or bigger) heavy skillet with a lid, heat 1/4 Celsius olive oil over low heat. Add onion rings (pile them in--they will reduce in size). Drizzle with a little more olive oil if needed and cook, stirring infrequently, till translucent and golden, 30 minutes or so. When onions are done, transfer to the bowl with roasted veggies with slotted spoon, allowing any excess oil to drip into the pan.
  • Wipe oil out of pan with a paper towel and place 1 Celsius water in pan. Heat water till steaming (still over relatively low heat), then add the kale (work in batches if needed). Steam 5-7 minutes, till bright green and tender. Add to bowl with onions and roasted veggies and toss.
  • Make the marinara:

  • Heat olive oil in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. till shimmery. Add fennel (or onion) and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, till softened. Add tomatoes and their juice, vinegar and fennel seed (if you don't like a strong fennel flavor and used fennel for sautéing, skip the seeds). Simmer 10-15 minutes, till heated through. Puree with an immersion blender (or start with pureed tomatoes). Set aside.
  • Cook the pasta:

  • Bring a large pot of salted water to a vigorous boil. Breaking the pasta dough into 3 equal portions, roll out on a floured surface (adding as much flour as needed to prevent sticking) till dough is roughly 1/4" thick. Cut into long wide noodles (3" by 13" or whatever will fit your lasagna pan). When all noodles are rolled out, drop noodles into boiling water and cook no more than a minute. Drain thoroughly and lay noodles flat on a kitchen towel (use tongs to handle hot noodles) so they don't stick together. (If using dried noodles, cook according to package directions).
  • Assemble lasagna!
  • Preheat oven to 375°F Spray a 9" by 13" glass baking dish with olive oil.
  • Spread a thin layer of marinara over the bottom and top with a layer of noodles, covering the bottom completely. Top with 1/2 the veggie mixture, 1/3 the ricotta (crumble it over the lasagna with your fingers--don't try to spread it!), 1/3 the Romano, and another layer of sauce. Begin a new layer of noodles and top with remaining veggie mixture, 1/3 the ricotta, 1/3 the Romano, and another layer of sauce. Top with remaining noodles, remaining sauce, remaining ricotta and Romano. Place assembled lasagna in 375 deg. oven. Bake for 30 minutes, till sauce is bubbly and cheese on top is melted. Let rest at least 15 minutes before serving.

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Reviews

  1. I'd skip the kale next time--did not reheat well.
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/adoptedspring08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /> <br />Hubby and I are currently living in St. Paul, MN in a great little neighborhood with tons of independent businesses. We have restaurants, natural foods coops (yes, plural!!), libraries, neighborhood movie theaters, everything is easy walking or biking distance--we love it! We enjoy biking a lot, too, and the Twin Cities have a fantastic network of bike trails, tons of things to do and see?we?ve found the perfect location! We currently live in an apartment, so our gardening attempts are limited to 3 large pots of herbs (one is all basil, the others are a mix of rosemary, tarragon, thai basil, mint, curry plant, sage, thyme, and oregano). We're saving for a house, so eventually we'll have a yard to plant more veggies in, but for now the herb pots do pretty well! <br /> <br />I enjoy cooking in my spare time (well, and my not-so-spare time, too...my hubby, who also loves to cook, accuses me of planning way-too-elaborate weeknight meals, but he never complains once he starts eating...no matter how late it is!) We are pretty adamant about eating healthy and sustainable foods. I try to make a point to source the majority of my ingredients as locally as possible, and I'm very lucky to have the wonderful St. Paul farmer's market available year round (though in the winter my choices are limited to fresh eggs, organic/free-range meat of all sorts, cheese, honey, baked goods...limited, right?...poor me!...in the summer the market is bursting with all that plus all manner of vegetables, and I've never met a vegetable there I didn't like). I also eat a good deal of wild game meat (elk, deer, antelope) because my family (who still live in MT) ship a box of hunting season bounty to us every winter. What doesn't come from the farmers market or the wild game express comes from my local natural foods co-op (St. Paul's Mississippi Market), which has a plethora of local products to choose from as well! <br /> <br />I try to eat as healthfully as possible, so if I make your recipe, I may alter it to fit my preferred diet (i.e. I'll cut down on fat, add veggies, change cuts of meat, cut down on cheese and certain condiments like mayo, etc.). I will still rate the recipe unless I pretty much don't follow it at all, in which case I'll just leave a comment with what I did--I always like to see what others have done with recipes, but I don't think it's fair to grade the recipe if I didn't actually follow it! I won?t generally make a recipe if it calls for ingredients I don?t like (and can?t sub out for something I do like), so most of my ratings are pretty high for that reason. I?ve never really understood people who try a recipe and then give it a very low rating only because they don?t like the ingredients called for. Anyhow. <br /> <br />My rating system for recipes is pretty simple. I won?t give a star rating to a recipe if I don?t follow it fairly closely. If I do give your recipe a star rating, this is what it means: <br />5 stars = fantastic flavor or unique (and tasty) &amp; the recipe worked as written?would definitely make it again <br />4 stars = good flavor &amp;/or the recipe needed only some minor changes to work?would likely make again <br />3 stars = the recipe needed a fair bit of alteration to be edible?might try it again, but would make some major changes <br />2 stars = good idea in theory, bad recipe in practice?would only try it again (with massive changes) if I?m feeling ambitious/creative <br />1 star = inedible?would not be trying it again</p>
 
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