Perched on a high wooden chair, the dregs of chamomile herbal tea wafting to my nose, I sit at the kitchen table dreaming about food. Isn't it beautiful? Food, I mean.
Yesterday Chad had to get his blood drawn after fasting for two meals, and before he had eaten again, he said, "I just missed eating today. I missed having that experience!"
Call us crazy, but we have made mealtimes into times of indulgence. From picking the best veggies and fruits from the produce stand, to chopping and slicing and sautéing, to smelling the flavors as they simmer in the oven, and then to twirling the pasta around our forks and feeding our bodies (after snapping a couple pictures, of course).
What a lovely experience we have three times a day (or in my case, six or seven). Why not take joy in a task that could be otherwise mundane? Partaking of food in this way brings me pleasure every day. It's my own form of creation, my own form of bliss.
The sky is vibrant and blue today, the air crisp enough to let you know it's there. This time of year, I look for any excuse to make hearty bowls of goodness that warm your body from the inside out. So far I haven't found a better way of doing that than roasting my ingredients.
A pan of roasted things just has more juice, more flavor, more umph.
It was this new devotion to roasting that inspired today's recipe. Based on my grandmother's Christmas specialty, this lasagna is filled with succulent end-of-summer vegetables and lots of cheeeeeese. The tomatoes and parsley came from the garden in our backyard (planted and kept up by our generous neighbor). After tasting these babies, I never want to go back to store-bought parsley or tomatoes ever again. There is nothing quite like homegrown flavor.
I'm going to say I don't have any pictures of the finished product because you all know what lasagna looks like, but really we just ate the whole pan within 24 hours: seconds for dinner, friends for lunch the next day, and the pan was scraped clean. That's okay. The pictures wouldn't have done it justice anyway. Melted mozzarella isn't the most ideal subject to photograph. To make it up to you, these pictures of the vegetables pre-roast were not edited in any way. Soak in that color saturation and enjoy!
But first,
what's your favorite way to warm up when the air gets chilly?
Time-Saving Options:
Roast the veggies the night before
Replace the veggies with two 19-ounce packages of frozen chopped spinach, cooked
Use pre-cooked lasagna noodles
Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
1 zucchini, quartered then sliced
2 cups fresh mushrooms, thickly sliced
5 Roma tomatoes, quartered
½ white onion, diced
Olive oil
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
S&P
1 package whole wheat lasagna noodles (I only used about 14 noodles)
1-8 ounce can tomato sauce
1-6 ounce can tomato paste
2 cups cottage cheese, drained (Knudsen's is the best; no need to drain it), or ricotta cheese
1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated
Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine first four ingredients in a bowl. Toss with olive oil, parsley, and S&P. Spread into a lined baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, break lasagna noodles in half and cook in boiling, unsalted water for 8 – 10 minutes or until barely tender. Drain and set aside.
Mix tomato sauce and tomato paste together. Set aside.
Note: When taking roasted vegetables out of the oven, reduce oven temperature to 375. Also, the noodles fit into the pan best if you lay five horizontally (pan is vertical) and two vertically.
In a greased 9 x 13 pan, layer half the noodles, roasted vegetables, cottage cheese, tomato sauce/paste, and mozzarella. Repeat the layers reserving ½ cup mozzarella cheese for the top. Sprinkle the finished product with Parmesan cheese before putting in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving to make sure the layers stay together. Freezes well!