Lasagna

Maybe you make lasagna all the time. It's pretty easy, actually. It's a great way to use up a lot of an overwhelming zucchini crop. You need cheese and tomato sauce, which you can buy at the supermarket. Spinach or chard can be really good in a lasagna too. The tomato sauce can have meat in it or not.

I like to pre-cook zucchini slightly before putting it into the layers of the lasagna. This summer, one time I cut the squash into disks, drizzled them with olive oil in a big bowl, tossed them around, and put them in the microwave, covered, for a few minutes. When they were partially cooked, I could put the lasagna together. This time, I decided to cut the squash into "slabs" and cook them slightly in the oven after brushing them with olive oil. That gives good flavor.

The cheeses I used this time were mozzarella and ricotta, with a sprinkle of grated Swiss cheese (emmental râpé that I bought at the store) on top. I used six lasagne noodles on each of three layers — 18 in all, then. Start by spreading a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the lasagna pan and arrange the first 6 noodles over that. Then continue making layers of noodles, cheese, sauce, and squash or other vegetables.

I had made a quick tomato sauce with some of the many many fresh tomatoes we have right now. Instead of making a meat sauce, I included some slices of pre-cooked chicken breast in one of the lasagna layers.

We ended up with an extra-large lasagne. One third of it was enough for our lunch, and the other two thirds went into the freezer for later. We'll enjoy some summery lasagna between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I think.