What I'm Cooking - My first-ever lasagna!

In the same issue of Cooks' Illustrated (September & October 2011) that brought you the Cranberry-Nut Muffins, comes (one of) my greatest creation to date, a towering juggernaut of the vegetable world, replete with healthy goodness, deliciousness, a just a splash of over-the-top hyperbole. LET US BEGIN!

So what makes this recipe so great beyond tasting delicious is the fact that it's so easy to make. Normally you'd expect to be building from scratch with CI, but this time they looking to keep your time in the kitchen to a minimum. This means a no-cook tomato sauce and a no-cook cream sauce accompany the no-boil noodles you're going to be using today.

Vegetable Lasagna

No-Cook Tomato Sauce
1	28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
¼	cup chopped fresh basil
2	tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2	garlic cloves, minced
1	teaspoon kosher salt
¼	teaspoon red pepper flakes
No-Cook Cream Sauce
4	ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (2 cups)
1	cup whole-milk cottage cheese
1	cup heavy cream
2	garlic cloves, minced
1	teaspoon of cornstarch
½	teaspoon kosher salt
½	teaspoon pepper
Vegetable Filling
1 ½	pounds eggplant, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes (about 7 cups)
	Kosher salt and pepper
1	pound zucchini, cut into  -inch pieces
1	pound of yellow squash, cut into  -inch pieces (about 4 cups)
5	tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
4	garlic cloves, minced
1	tablespoon minched fresh thyme
12	ounces baby spinach (about 12 cups
12	no-boil lasagna noodles
½	cup minced pitted kalamata olives NOPE NOPE NOPE
12	ounces low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)
2	tablespoons chopped fresh basil

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE:

1. Whisk everything together and then set it aside. That's it. Seriously.

FOR THE CREAM SAUCE:

2. Whisk everything together and then set it aside. That's it. Seriously.

I will note however that by the time I got to spreading the "sauce" onto my lasagna it was more the consistency of cooking dough, and I added some more heavy cream to make it manageable.

FOR THE FILLING:

3. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

4. Eggplant is notorious for carrying moisture and to avoid watering down the lasagna when it cooks CI came up with brilliant plan of microwaving the sucker to preemptively reduce the liquid it was retaining. So first toss the eggplant with about 1 teaspoon of salt and then place it high on a couple of paper towels on a large plate. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes, take it out, toss it, place it on some fresh paper towels and then throw it back in the microwave for another 5 minutes. By the end of this the eggplant should have lost a significant amount of volume. Once done, mix together with the zucchini and squash.

5. Now we're going to further reduce the moisture in the veggies cooking them for about 7 minutes over medium high heat. Before we get started though, combine 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the garlic, and thyme (I used dried) in a small bowl. Once that's done heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick skillet until shimmering and then toss in half the eggplant mixture, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are lightly browned. Push the vegetables to the sides of the skillet and then put half of the garlic mixture in the middle and smash it up good until fragrant. Then stir everything together, transfer to a bowl and repeat the whole process with the other half of the eggplant mixture.

6. The last step before assembly was the most cumbersome for me. Return the skillet to medium-high heat, and the remaining teaspoon of oil, and heat until shimmering. Then try and cram all 12 cups of spinach into the skillet, stirring constantly, until wilted. Suffice to say I made a mess. Anywho, once that's done transfer the spinach to a paper towel-lined plate and let drain for a couple of minutes. You might even considering wringing it dry if your paper towels are sturdy enough. Then stir it into the eggplant mixture.



LASAGNA ASSEMBLE!:

7. Grab yourself a handy-dandy 13 by 9-inch baking dish and spray that sucker down with vegetable oil spray. Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish; shingle 4** noodles on top of the sauce. Spread half of the vegetable mixture over the noodles, followed by half the cream sauce, and 1 cup of mozzarella. Repeat layering with 4** noodles, 1 cup tomato sauce, remaining vegetables, remaining cream sauce, and 1 cup mozzarella. Place remaining 4** noodles on top layer of cheese. Spread remaining 1 cup tomato sauce over noodles and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella.



Light spray large sheet of aluminum foil with vegetable oil spray and over lasagna. Bake until bubbling, about 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 25 minutes. Cut into pieces, sprinkle with basil, and serve. BAM!

Seriously, this was delicious and it fed me for a week. Even my roommate was impressed, and demanded I pass along the recipe to him.


**No bake noodles seemed to come in two forms, and frankly I wished I had gotten the other. The first is you standard looking lasagna noodle, which would be long, fairly sturdy looking and wavy on the ends. The second, which I ended up getting, are short, flat, cracker-like rectangles that cooked up okay, but weren't particularly good. So, yeah, keep away from those.