Linda's Lasagna

We are proud to announce the results and recipes of our first food battle: lasagna!  Mmm mmm mmm.  Our food babies sure were satisfied!  Look at Joe... he couldn't even keep stop himself from licking the damned thing. 

Joe went more into the traditional route while Linda went more into the creative one.  However, both lasagna turned out yummmmm-o (ugh too much Food Network... I hate you, Rachel Ray).  The results?  A tie.  Perhaps a bit anti-climatic for our first battle, but I guarantee you that they will get better and make us fatter. 

Linda's Roasted Vegetable Lasagna with Pesto Ricotta

I wanted to create something a little more unique than the traditional lasagna so I decided to add my favorite pasta sauce in the mix: pesto!  If I had a food processor, I would have made my own fresh pesto but there was some Costco stuff in our fridge.  Don't hate!  This stuff is good and is only made with fresh ingredients and no preservatives.  I was worried that there were too many flavors squeezed into one dish but it all came out really well together.  Pesto?  AND tomato sauce?  Are you crazy???  Maybe I am!  But crazy = good.  There was a lot of love put into this one.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1 pack of hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 small yellow onion

4 cloves of chopped garlic

1/2 cup of red wine (the kind you would drink, not the crappy cooking wine)

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper

1 box of lasagna sheets

15 oz ricotta cheese

1/4 cup of pesto (I used the one from Costco)

1/2 cup of parmesean, plus more for topping

1 beaten egg

2 zucchinis, sliced thin lengthwise

1 jar of roasted red peppers (I got mine from Trader Joe's)

1 can of artichoke hearts, chopped

1/4 cup of bread crumbs

Shredded mozzarella

Fresh sliced mozzarella

In a nonstick sauce pan or skillet,  cook 1 chopped onion in 2 tbsp of olive oil for about 5 minutes.  Add the chopped garlic and turkey sausage.  Cook until sausage is no longer pink.  You can use regular pork sausage, too, but one of our judges doesn't not eat pork.  Add canned tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, black pepper red wine and reduce heat to simmer.  Simmer for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally.  If you're impatient, you can just add more tomato paste to thicken the sauce faster, but I like the intense flavors that come out from simmering for a long time.  You want the sauce to be thick and hearty.  You can add a little bit of sugar to cut the acidity.

Slice the zucchinis lengthwise thinly.  Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Soak lasagna sheets for 20 minutes in the hottest tap water.  A trick I learned from Ina Garten!  Mix ricotta, parmesean, beaten egg, and pesto in a bowl.

Assembly!  In a 9x12 baking dish, ladle some sauce at the bottom of the dish then layer in this order: pasta, ricotta, zucchini, shredded mozzarella, sauce, pasta, ricotta, bell peppers, shredded mozzarella, sauce, pasta, ricotta, artichokes, shredded mozzarella, sauce, pasta, sauce, sliced mozzarella.  Then sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and a little drizzle of olive oil.  Bake in oven for 30 minutes, until cheese is gbd (golden brown delicious).