Farmer's Market Lasagna Rolls

Farmer’s Market (or Garden or CSA) Lasagna Rolls

I picked up our CSA on Tuesday from Coveyou Farms to find…MORE basil.  It wouldn’t be such a huge deal if we didn’t have a huge amount of basil between our own garden and planters.   But I guess it’s a good problem to have, right?

I also found carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, peppers, and yellow beans.  I was set on making dinner and using a decent amount of the produce in whatever I whipped up.

With the zucchini, tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, and leftover pesto I had in the fridge from last week, I decided that I could probably do some variation on veggie lasagna.  I have loved making lasagna ever since I would watch my mom make it when I was little.  Oh and when she gave me the leftover noodles with butter and parmesan cheese.  I could still eat that for lunch today. 

Anyway, I headed to Pinterest to find a delicious recipe.  I like being able to see what the recipe might look like before I try it.  I found one and starting putting my sauce together, put my pot of water on to boil and started chopping up zucchini.  Then I remembered something else I had seen on Pinterest: lasagna rolls.  Based on what I had already done, it wasn’t hard to switch over to lasagna rolls.  And you know that lasagna rolls are all the rage ;)  As an added bonus, it seemed to be much quicker to put the lasagna rolls together, even though I switched up what I had seen in most recipes.

Here’s the Recipe:

What you’ll need:

Sauce

½ pound ground burger (optional)

½ large onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 small peppers, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used organic tomato basil)

2 teaspoons agave nectar (or some sugar)

Handful fresh basil, diced

1 Tablespoon fresh oregano, diced

Filling

2 cups ricotta cheese

1 egg

¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, diced

3 Tablespoons pesto

1 box lasagna noodles    

2 medium zucchini, sliced on a diagonal

½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

How to do it:

[1] Put a large pot of water on to boil.  In another pot over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon EVOO.  Add onions and sauté for 3-5 minutes.  Then add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.  Add ground burger and brown.  (If you leave the meat out, you may need a little more EVOO).

[2] Add chopped peppers and tomatoes to the burger/onion/garlic mixture just before burger is totally cooked. 

[3] Add jar of spaghetti sauce once burger is browned.  Then, add agave nectar (to add a bit of sweetness and counter the acidity in the tomatoes), basil and oregano.  Let this simmer over low heat for 45 minutes-1 hour. 

[4] Once pot of water boils, add lasagna noodles and cook according to the box. 

[5] Heat oven to 450.  Coat cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Place zucchini in a single layer on sheet.  Bake for 12-13 minutes.

[6] While noodles and zucchini are cooking, mix together ricotta, parmesan, egg, fresh parsley, and pesto. 

[7] Drain pasta.  In a 9x13 pan, ladle sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.

[8] On a piece of aluminum foil (think: easy clean-up later), lay a noodle, top with a heaping tablespoon of ricotta mixture.  Then add a few pieces of zucchini.  Roll up and place in 9x13 pan.  Repeat until you are out of ricotta mixture or pan is full.

[9] Top with more spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. 

[10] Bake at 350 for 25 minutes covered and 5 minutes uncovered or until cheese melts.

Make sure to put enough sauce on that the noodles stay moist and don't dry out too much when you bake it.  We've also found that this makes pretty good leftovers :)