Wherein the Zucchini Lasagna is realized.

Earlier this week I sliced into a knobbly, gnarly green tube I found in my produce drawer thinking it surely was one of the CSA farmer's heirloom cucumbers.  ALAS!  It was a zucchini!  And thereafter it joined its two fellow squashes, these of the summer variety, in search of a home in my belly.

But, you see, I'm already sick of summer squashes.  And I'm not even overrun with them as I was last year, seeing as this wedding business has been keeping me away from my CSA last week, my FIL's garden, and my Uncle's generous handouts.  Yet we've had a regular number cycling through the house, mostly destined for the grill (sliced in big, fat pieces and tossed with oil and copious spices) or the pot (soup, stir fries, fried rice, etc.)

So I remembered my experiment last year with zucchini lasagna (recipe adapted from a friend's mom's and altered for taste, posted here) and thought I'd give it another go.  Last year, I replaced all the pasta noodles with zucchini...and, while tasty, the resulting dish was not well structured nor composed.  It would fall apart into a messy pile on your plate, although the pile tasted good, it wasn't much to look at.  And I had to bake it FOR-EVER to get rid of a pesky puddle of juices that appeared when we pulled out the first slice.  No structure, too much moisture...how to solve these dilemmas?

Well, so sayeth captain obvious, NOODLES!  Of the no-cook variety, preferably, so they can act as little sponges to soak up the copious liquid given off by the zucchini slices while giving structure to the behemoth.  Who would have thought that noodles would solve my lasagna's woes.... kidding folks, just kidding.

This year's batch was far more successful than last years---it was pretty damn near perfect.  My only quibble (see photo above) was that, overcome with fear of another watery puddle, I opted to bake it uncovered for the full hour.  This resulted in the top layer being very browned and, in places, tough enough to want a knife.  Now, I'm a girl who likes all things burned, caramelized, crispy, etc--especially cheese, like the brown bits on pizza or where the grilled cheese leakage hits the pan, so to me this wasn't an issue.  But the noodles worked so well in soaking up extra moisture, that I think you should probably go with what the recipe says and cover for the first 30 minutes of baking.

I love this lasagna.  With just 1/2 pound of meat, low-fat cottage cheese standing in for ricotta, and lots of zucchini spread throughout, it really isn't heavy at all. Scant scatterings of cheese replace layers and layers of dairy goodness, and just one egg binds it all together.  It manages to taste light, perfect for summer and actually pretty easy to prepare.  I even made mine the day before so it was all ready to go in the oven after work--couldn't be easier!  It serves 6-8, depending on how big you cut the slices.  It isn't the deepest or most filling lasagna, which are good things in my book, but might leave others feeling like they need a second slice.    Try it--you'll like it!  And you'll use up at least two zucchini, which at the end of summer is a miracle in and of itself.


Zucchini Lasagna