Two Way Lasagna

Tomato or creamy, meatless or seafood? The choices are many!  Here's a chance to use lots of vegetables and any cheese on hand.

First assemble the individual layers. For both versions of lasagna, I used the same filling.

Ricotta Lasagna Filling

(Serves 8)

Combine cheeses, egg and herbs.
1 1/2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 teaspoon herbs 
I also added 2 sauteed mini sweet peppers, diced.

Marinara & Vegetable Sauce

(Serves 3-4)

• Chop vegetables in food processor. Saute in olive oil. Mine has onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, parsley and spinach. Saute the onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms first, then add the broccoli, parsley and spinach. Drain on a clean absorbent cloth, squeezing to remove excess moisture.

2 cups assorted chopped vegetables
1 tablespoon olive oil 
Mix vegetables into marinara. Add salt.
2 cups marinara sauce 
1/8 teaspoon salt

Seafood Sauce

(Serves 3-4)

Bring water and shrimp shells and tails to a boil. (I freeze the shells and tails from peeled raw shrimp to use for seafood base). Remove shells by draining through a colander. Return liquid to pan.
1 cup water
Shrimp shells and tails

Mix flour and milk. (I did this in my food processor). Add to seafood liquid in pan.
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup skim milk
Mix in grated cheese and salt.
2 tablespoon grated cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt

Chop vegetables in food processor. Saute in olive oil. Mine has onions, garlic, fennel, mushrooms, broccoli, parsley and spinach. Saute the onions, garlic, fennel and mushrooms first, then add the broccoli, parsley and spinach. Mix into sauce in pan and heat only until thickening.
2 cups assorted chopped vegetables
1 tablespoon olive oil

Assembly

Layer in 8 X 6 baking dish greased with olive oil spray.

Layer 1:
Sauce
Noodles, whole grain
Ricotta filling

Repeat sauce, noodles, ricotta filling.

End with remaining sauce.
Top with grated cheese.

Cover with greased foil. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 15 minutes more. Move to cooling rack and sit for 20 minutes.

Seafood Lasagna

 For the seafood lasagna, I add 4 ounce of crab meat above the ricotta filling. (2 ounce crab above each of the two ricotta layers)

Marinara & Vegetable Lasagna

My noodles are made from scratch. Lasagna noodles are surprisingly easy to make. They don't have to be perfect. The thinner the better. (I use a pasta roller attachment on my mixer). Use the thick pieces for soups.

Because pasta making is labor intensive, I dehydrate 1/2 the batch and freeze for later use. The fresh noodles were not cooked for the first batch of lasagna. The dehydrated noodles do require cooking slightly before assembly. The pasta is hazardous and requires refrigeration.

Dehydrated Noodles