Vegetable-Cottage Cheese Lasagna

I love all things pasta and I love making my meals meatless – so you can kinda imagine where I am going with this. This lasagna turned out to be great – super saucy, lots of filling, and the cottage cheese texture could have fooled any meat lover. I have to admit, it’s quite labor and kitchen equipment intensive, but it’s well worth it. Ideally, get a sous-chef to help you out, and it will be done in no time!

The recipe yields 12 servings, but realistically feeds 8 people.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 5 large carrots
• 2 medium zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 large yellow onion
• 200 g // 8 oz baby spinach
• 900 g // 32 oz low-fat cottage cheese (alternatively you can use ricotta)
• 12 lasagna noodles (no-boil or regular)
• 300 g // 2 ½ cups Krievijas cheese (for non-Latvians, just use low-moisture mozzarella cheese)
• 125 g // 1 cup fresh mozzarella cheese, optional

For the tomato sauce:

• 1200 ml // 42 oz canned diced tomatoes (this should be 3 small cans)
• handful of fresh basil + some for garnish
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220 C // 425 F degrees.
2. Chop up the carrots, zucchini, bell pepper and onion into small cubes. In a large frying pan (even your biggest pot) over medium high heat warm up the oil and then add the chopped veggies. Add some salt to taste, about ½ tsp and cook, stirring every once in a while, until the veggies have softened, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the spinach, mix and let it wilt for a couple of minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.
4. About the noodles. If you have the no-boil noodles and you’re feeling brave (aka you will use them dry and uncooked), skip this step. I however, once fucked up with this and ended up with a very crispy lasagna, so I like to go the safe way and pre-boil my noodles. In a large pot, boil water and add a few big pinches of salt. Once the water is boiling, one by one, put in 6 noodles and let them boil for a couple of minutes. Make sure they don’t stick together! This won’t take long, you just want to get them a bit flexible. Transfer each noodle to a bowl of cold water until assembly. Repeat this with the other 6 noodles.
5. Now onto the tomato sauce! Pour the canned tomatoes into a strainer/sieve and drain off the excess juice. If using no-boil noodles (aka adding them in dry and uncooked), let the excess liquid drain for a few seconds, but if using regular noodles (aka pre-boiling them) make sure you get rid of a lot of liquid so you don’t end up having lasagna soup.
6. Transfer the drained tomatoes to a food processor or a blender. Add the chopped basil, olive oil, minced garlic, red pepper flakes and some salt. Pulse or blend it until you get a smooth sauce consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later. Rinse out the food processor and return it to the machine.
7. Add the cooked veggie mixture to the food processor and pulse until they are more finely chopped (but not puréed!) – I pulsed 4 times, scraping down the sides in between pulses. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the cottage cheese, some salt and black pepper to taste. Stir to combine.
8. Now it’s lasagna assembly time! Grate the Krievijas cheese and tear apart fresh mozzarella into smaller pieces. Spread ¼ of the tomato sauce evenly on the bottom of a large (roughly 20cmx30cm // 8inx12in) baking dish. Layer 4 lasagna noodles on the sauce, overlapping them if necessary. Distribute ½  of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Add ½ of the remaining tomato sauce on top and sprinkle ¼ of grated cheese.
9. Add another 4-noodle layer, followed by the other half of the cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle ⅓ of the remaining grated cheese on top.
10. Add the last 4-noodle layer, spread some tomato sauce over the top to cover the noodles (you might not need to use all of it).
11. Cover the top of lasagne with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the cover, sprinkle the leftover cheeses on top and continue baking for about 20 more minutes, or until the cheese on top is turning brown. Towards the end of baking, I suggest turning the temperature of the oven up or changing to fan cooking, to allow some of the cheese to burn slightly and get crispy.
12. Remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Add some basil as a garnish and enjoy!