One day, while surfing Foodbuzz’s “Daily 9”, a photo called the Greatest Vegetable Lasagna in the World caught my eye. I clicked on it and scanned the recipe, the blogger was from Iceland (if I remember correctly) and linked to two sites that inspired her adaptation. The photo at Ezra Pound Cake resulted in a Pavlovian response of instantaneous salivation and made me determined to develop my own mouth-watering rendition.

Preparing all the components for lasagna can be time-consuming, but if you love losagna, it’s totally worth it! I had a rainy afternoon to dedicate to it and there are shortcuts* that can save you time, yet don’t sacrifice taste. This dish is meatless but is chock-full of flavor with a bit of a punch from the Arrabiata sauce.

Veggie Lasagna with Arrabiata Sauce

1 pkg. organic oven-ready lasagna*
2 -25 oz. jars prepared organic Arrabiata Sauce*
(one for additional sauce at the table)
1-16 oz. container part-skim ricotta cheese
½ c. prepared pesto sauce
2 T. olive oil
8- oz. grated mozzarella

Vegetables:
2 medium eggplants, cut crosswise into ½ inch rounds
4 medium zucchini, sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch slices
2 red or yellow peppers, cored and seeded
½ onion, sliced
¼ c. olive oil
1-16 oz. pkg. prewashed spinach, steamed and drained

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two cookie sheets with oil. Brush the vegetables with olive oil. Roast in batches, turning once – about 5 minutes per side or until softened. The peppers need to roast until the skin is blackened. Allow to cool, then remove the skin and slice into strips.

2. In a glass bowl, mix the ricotta with pesto sauce and 2 T. olive oil.

3. Spray a 13×9 baking or lasagna pan with oil. Spread sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Layer with lasagna, overlapping the pieces. Then a layer of ricotta – use a rubber spatula to spread. Followed by a layer of vegetables, then topped with half of the grated mozzarella. Spoon more sauce on top and repeat layering, ending up with mozzarella and spoonfuls of sauce.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, allow the lasagna to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

I served the lasagna on a bed of spinach which was meant to be included IN the lasagna Heat additional sauce to spoon over lasagna at the table.

Enjoy

* Note: these are shortcuts that can make preparation of this dish less labor intensive. Also, I always suggest buying organic for all ingredients.