a lighter lasagne recipe

I don’t often cook lasagnes – to be honest, they’re an awful lot of work. I also am not crazy about meaty lasagnes (similar to the way I don’t like spaghetti Bolognese). They can also be pretty awful for you when loaded with béchamel sauce and cheese.

But they serve up so beautifully with a lovely side salad – and can be frozen ahead of time. They also generally taste better the day after, making fantastic leftovers.

So this past weekend I decided to make a spring/summer lasagne with courgettes/zucchini in mind. Some recipes like this encourage you to replace the pasta with the courgettes – but I still wanted the pasta, so that was a no go.

As for the tomato sauce, I used a mixture of chopped tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and a store-bought sauce (gasp!) that was on sale at the supermarket.

For the creamy, cheesy component, I used a mixture of ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and skimmed milk.

Courgette lasagne
(serves 4)

4 large courgettes, sliced thinly lengthwise (about 600 g)
olive oil spray
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10 sheets lasagne
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250 g ricotta cheese
100 ml milk
handful of basil
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350 g mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly
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350 g of tomato and basil pasta sauce
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2-3 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped

Preheat the grill. Spray the long thin slices of courgette with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through. You may have to do this in two batches. Set the courgettes to the side to cool.

While the courgettes are cooking, prepare the two sauces. Bring the three tomato ingredients to a simmer. In another pot, mix the ricotta, milk, basil and stir before heating over medium. Season both mixtures.

When the courgettes are done you can start the layering. First, preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F. Start with a layer of tomato sauce (about 1/5), a bit of mozzarella (about 1/5), some courgettes (1/4) and a thin layer of the ricotta mixture (about ¼). Top with the lasagne sheets before repeating four times. (Make sure you reserve enough of each mixture for each layer!) Top the final lasagne sheets with the remaining tomato sauce and mozzarella before putting in the oven to cook for 40 minutes.

Calories per serving: 591.

Serve with a fresh, crunchy side salad (romaine, cucumber, tomato, basil vinaigrette) and some steamed vegetables (broccoli perhaps?)

We had this for dinner one night and lunch the next day. So much for freezing leftovers…