The Lady Olive

I usually make one big trip to the grocery store each week, attempting to make some sort of meal plan for the nights that I cook dinner. Sometimes, the unexpected happens, and you end up with an unused container of ricotta and a withering eggplant in your vegetable drawer.

I was planning to make some grilled eggplant filled with ricotta (sounds delicious right?), but as you can see that did not happen. Maybe next time…

So until then, I have a recipe for you I found on The Dashing Dish, which I altered slightly.  I PROMISE you will not miss the noodles.  It is an outstanding recipe that I will make again and again!

Noodleless Lasagna (makes 8 servings–more like 6 for us, we’re greedy)

Ingredients:

For the “noodles”

1 large eggplant

3 large zucchini

For the meat layer

1.3 lb ground turkey

2 brats or sausage links (removed from casing)

1 26 oz jar marinara sauce

4 cups combined frozen or fresh broccoli and cauliflower

1 onion-diced

2 cloves of minced garlic

For the cheese layer

1 16 oz container of whole milk ricotta (Or part skim, can also use cottage cheese)

1/2 cup grated parmesan

3/4 cup shredded part skim mozzarella

First and foremost, slice your eggplant and zucchini (feel free to use all eggplant or all zucchini) into thin 1/8″ vertical slices. I decided to sweat my veggies first to help prevent the dish from becoming excessively watery.

Then roast your slices 5 minutes on each side in a 425 degree oven.  It’s worth it!

For the meat layer: Add ground turkey and sausage (it adds a lot of flavor!) to a large skillet and cook all the way through. Then, add the broccoli and cauliflower, garlic, onion, and entire jar of marinara sauce. Simmer until the veggies are soft and/or totally thawed. I also added about 1 tbsp of tomato paste at the last minute and have no regrets.

For the cheese layer: Combine ricotta with the parmesan cheese. I added a generous sprinkle of basil and oregano to my cheese mixture!

Now begin to layer in a 9×13 baking dish in this order: Meat, Veggies, Cheese (feel free to make an acronym to remember this and let me know what it is) I rely on acronyms for most everything!

When you’ve finished your M-V-C (Most Valuable Cook?) layering, sprinkle the mozzarella on top, cover with foil and bake for an hour at 375.

Cook an additional 10 minutes without the foil to get the cheese nice and brown!

This noodleless lasagna is a real winner! I also have a sneaking suspicion that even the pickiest eaters might ask for seconds!

To my vegetarian friends, you can omit the meat and increase the veggies to make a vegetarian friendly dish!

I hope you like my veggie packed recipes! I really can’t get enough, but then again I asked for collard greens instead of cake when I was a kid. Cue the eye rolls…

xo

The Lady Olive