No noodle lasagna stars vegetables, cheese

The last time I ate traditional lasagna I found myself scraping the melted cheese and tomato sauce from the pasta and piling the mixture onto my fork, leaving the naked noodles on my plate. It isn’t that I don’t like pasta — I really do — but I love mozzarella and tomato melded into cheesy, stringy goodness more.

That love of melted mozzarella and tomato sauce was my inspiration for this no-noodle vegetable lasagna. I figured as long as I was skipping the noodles, I might as well skip the meat and let the vegetables and cheese shine.

But make no mistake, there’s nothing low calorie about this lasagna as it combines a gluttonous amount of cheese with fresh vegetables and roasted-tomato sauce.

No Noodle Vegetable Lasagna

Olive oil

2 cups shredded mozzarella,

divided use 1 generous cup whole-milk

ricotta

2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan ¼ to ½ teaspoon dried basil ¼ to ½ teaspoon dried oregano

Garlic powder to taste Crushed red pepper flakes to

taste

Salt and ground black pepper

to taste

1 egg

1 yellow squash, very thinly

sliced lengthwise 1 zucchini, very thinly sliced

lengthwise

1 eggplant, very thinly sliced 1½ to 2 cups roasted-tomato pasta sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly coat a small baking dish with olive oil; set aside.

Set aside ½ cup of the mozzarella.

In a medium bowl, stir together the remaining mozzarella, the ricotta, parmesan; season to taste with basil, oregano, garlic, red pepper, salt and black pepper. Stir in egg.

Layer yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, cheese mixture and tomato sauce in a 2-quart casserole dish. Repeat layers three times.

Finish with an additional layer of squash and zucchini. Sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.