Fresh Zucchini Lasagna
We picked Jay up from the airport tonight and brought him home for dinner. Labor day is a traditional day for grilling, but somehow I got it in my head I was going to do a vegetarian lasagna. Lots of cooking, a hot day and no air conditioning isn't very pleasant, but it wasn't horrible. Both recipes are featured in Fine Cooking's "Dinner with Friends" issue. The lasagna recipe differs slightly from the original in that the original uses 4 oz. mozzarella vs. 10 to 12 oz. in the re-released version.
- Although this lasagna is vegetarian, it is far from low fat. It's got lots of butter and cheese in it. I love fresh mozzarella. I don't like zucchini so I was worried about how much I would like this. It was okay, a bit too zucchini for me. Jay and Larry really liked it. It took some time to put together, but I did it early in the day so I just had to reheat it before dinner. I made a full recipe, and it made quite a bit.
- I used cannellini beans for the bean salad. The article suggests making bruschetta with the beans, but I like just bean salad. I left out the jalapeño, since Jay doesn't do spicy. The beans weren't bad.
I would love this. I had to laugh at the increase in cheese... from 4 oz. to 12? That's three times the original cheese! YUM!
Four ounces wouldn't have done the trick. Four ounces for a three-layer lasanga? That would be about one slice per layer. :)
More cheese makes everything better.
If you have the time would you mind sharing both those recipes? I have a ton of garden zucchini to use up, and the bean salad sounds interesting.
This 8x8 lasagna used two pounds of zucchini, so it would be a good use of what's in your garden! The recipe is here.
Last month at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market, I had a green salad, dressed with lemon and olive oil, with thinly sliced zucchini in it. It was excellent. The zucchini wasn't cooked, but I think it was salted and rinsed. There's something similar on Epicurious.
The bean salad was good. I missed the jalapeno, I think. But in general, I really like bean salads. And beans in general.