Recipe for Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna is, in my opinion, one of the more difficult pastas to prepare. But I was recently recruited to make vegetable lasagna for a holiday dinner, and even though it was more work than I was used to, it turned out to be pretty delicious. Here is the recipe. As a side note, I doubled the recipe in order to feed more people, but I ended up with extra pasta and too much sauce.

Ingredients:
• 1 package of 16 ounce lasagna noodles
• 1 cup of either fontina cheese or mozzarella
• 1 package of chopped spinach
• 1 cup of shredded carrots
• 1 cup of shredded zucchinis
• 3 cups of ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 medium onion
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• ½ cup of Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Wash and drain all the vegetables.

3. Boil a pot of water. Once boiling, put the noodles in to cook. Rinse the noodles in cold water and then drain. Make sure the lay the noodles flat so they won't stick together.

4. In a large bowl, mix together the fontina/mozzarella cheese, two and a half cups of the ricotta cheese, spinach, carrots, zucchinis, and egg.

5. Cover a 13 x 9 inch pan in aluminum foil. Spread some of the mixture on the bottom of the pan.

6. Alternate layering the noodles with the mixture. Make sure the top layer is made of noodles.

7. Chop the onion, and then sauté it in oil.

8. Stir in flour and nutmeg with the onion, and then add the chicken broth and one half cup of ricotta cheese. Make sure to keep this mixture heated so that it thickens. This will be the sauce.

9. Spoon the sauce on top of the lasagna.

10. Add Parmesan cheese on top of the lasagna.

11. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until the lasagna is browned. Serves eight.

Fun Fact:

Sure, everyone knows that Popeye the Sailor's favorite vegetable was spinach, but did you know that it was also Catherine de Medici's favorite vegetable? According to WHFoods, when she married the king of France, "she brought along her own cooks, who could prepare spinach the ways that she especially liked. Since this time, dishes prepared on a bed of spinach are referred o as "a la Florentine."

Resource:

WHFoods