Vegetable Lasagna and homemade tomato sauce

Lasagna is a food that hits the spot. It sticks to your bones, and just generally makes you happy. We planned for this to be a really fast meal. You know the kind where you throw it together, and then ignore it while it bakes. The problem was that we only had a very tiny container of sauce, and a very large dish to make the lasagna. The result was a slight delay as Nathan whipped up a batch of his famous tomato sauce. 

Nathan's Two-Family Tomato Sauce

7 average size garden tomatoes (or 7 smaller store bought ones)

3 cloves garlic (pressed)

Bit of onion

thyme

Dash and a half of black pepper

2 ½ c water

Half a bouillon cube.

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Simmer garlic, onion, and a pinch of black pepper in olive oil till onions turn translucent or garlic starts to brown.

Our handy dandy double boiler

 Add 2 ½ cups of water and bring it to a boil. Drop in half an overside vegetable bouillon cube. Add in 2 dried bay leaves and the tomatoes (which should be cut into large chunks). 

Chunked Tomatoes for the sauce, next to zucchini and eggplant for the lasagna

Boil 10 minutes, and then remove the bay leaves. Mash the totatoes and add the brown sugar, let simmer until it reduces to a good consistency. (like a half hour, it takes a while)

Vegetable Lasagna

12 noodles

Half container of ricotta

Chopped basil (2 handfuls)

¼ zucchini

Eggplant slices 4 (marinated in tomato, parsley, garlic, and olive oil)

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Mix basil and ricotta together, set aside.

Partially boil the noodles so they are half cooked.

Slice zucchini thin, and cut up eggplant into small pieces. (Picture above with tomatoes) 

Oil the bottom of a glass pan. Place bottom layer of noodles. Pour on tomato sauce, spread into a nice layer. Spread in ricotta, add a layer of zucchini and eggplant. Sprinkle in parmesan and mozzarella. Do another layer of noodles and repeat till you run out! I like to make the top just a layer of pasta, then sauce, and then a ton of cheese. That way you can cook it by watching the cheese on top. Once it gets to brown, its ready to take out and serve.

Enjoy!

Normally, we would have a picture of final project....but we got really hungry. Like we were watching the oven and pounced upon it once it was done...