KERF's Best Vegetable Lasagna

I think Kath is right. This is super delicious and pretty easy! If I can make it in the middle of house showing season with no stress, you can, too! My favorite part is that 1) it's fairly inexpensive, 2) it will not get old because you can use whatever vegetables you like/your family will eat/you can't find any other use for in your fridge. I've really been enjoying Kath Eats Real Food, from the different ways she flavors her oatmeal to creative ways to implement healthy habits into life. Plus, as you will discover, she has great recipes!

Ingredients

3 cups pasta sauce
16 ounces 2% cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan
9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
8 ounces mozzarella cheese
Approximately 4 cups mixed vegetables (I used spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare your baking dish with cooking spray. Chop your vegetables until they are bite-sized and close to the same shape and size. Combine cottage and parmesan cheeses in a bowl. Place 3 uncooked noodles along the bottom of the pan. Cover with 1 cup of your pasta sauce, making sure to cover all of the noodles with sauce. Next spread on about 1/3 of your cheese mixture, and then layer 1/3 of the chopped vegetables, and sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat this step twice.

Being the quintessential undomestic that I am, I forgot the last step in this process, the mozzarella cheese. I can't wait to make it again with that extra cheesy goodness, though my husband and I were perfectly happy with just the cheese on top this time!

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake one hour, until cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbling. I was out of aluminum foil, and the recipe still turned out great!

And now...

The secret to a happy marriage

Mushroom Ragout

JT says this is one of his favorite dishes I've ever made! I'm pretty sure it was inspired by the classic Italian sauce starter (onion, garlic, tomatoes), but I absolutely love mushrooms. Even though it has heavy Italian influences, I call it a Mushroom Ragout because French names sound fancy. It's vegetarian, takes less than 20 minutes but JT says serving it with grilled tilapia or chicken would taste delicious, too!

Ingredients

Pasta (I used orecchiette, but penne or linguine would work great, too!)
EVOO, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound mushrooms
1 can diced tomatoes
1-2 cups spinach leaves
Parmesan cheese
white wine (optional)

Directions

Bring a pot of cold water to a boil, add salt to the boiling water, and cook pasta according to package directions.

In the meantime, drizzle EVOO on the bottom of your saute pan, and once heated at medium high heat, add onions and stir frequently until almost transparent. When the onions are pretty much cooked, add garlic and stir. Once the garlic is fragrant, anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes later, add the mushrooms, plus a little salt and pepper, and stir until they darken and release their natural juices.

Add spinach leaves (about three handfuls or more: they will wilt down severely) and pour tomatoes over it with about half of their juices. I've added about 1/2 cup white wine at this time before for flavor, but it tasted much better this time without it, we thought. Maybe it's because I was using dry wine, and I am not a huge fan of that flavor. If you choose to add white wine, don't add any of the tomato juices. You may wish to salt and pepper again, or add red pepper flakes for a little kick. With red pepper flakes, it's best to start very small and add to taste, depending on how spicy you like your cuisine.

Stir until spinach has wilted and pan liquids are simmering (and hopefully reducing). Dial heat down to medium or medium low and add parmesan cheese about 1/4th cup at a time until your ragout has thickened. If it becomes too thick and difficult to stir, simply add a little pasta water.

Drain pasta and toss with sauce, but make sure your ragout is proportionate to your noodles. JT likes to have 1.5:1 ratio of noodles to sauce, but I like mine to be about 1:2 with more ragout than noodles.

Enjoy!

Carbonara

Ingredients:

• pasta - I use spaghetti or linguine
• bacon or pancetta - about 4 strips, chopped
• ham, Canadian bacon, or prosciutto
• 3-4 eggs, whisked
  
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• chopped basil
  

Bring a pot of water up to a boil, salt water, and cook pasta according to package directions.

In a separate skillet, cook bacon to desired crispness. If you want to make this dish more calorie-friendly, use ham instead of bacon or cook bacon in a separate pan to avoid the excess fat.

Add hot pasta to the skillet and stir in cheese until melted and pasta becomes creamy. Quickly add the whisked eggs and stir vigorously for about 4-5 minutes until the pasta is creamy and glossy. This "gentle cooking" is an art form because you don't want to scramble the eggs with the heat of the pasta, but you want to make sure the eggs are cooked and edible, so use discretion. In order to avoid scrambling, I added a spoonful of the hot pasta water to the eggs beforehand to warm them up a little.

Top with basil and cheese and serve warm.