Thursday Night: Italian!

I have always wanted to make lasagna, but I always thought it would be hard. Then a friend at work said it was really easy, and I felt inspired. Still, it took me about a year to remember to buy lasagna noodles. I finally got some today! I got home determined to make it, even though I realized I only had half the sauce required (actually more like 2/5), and almost no cheese. Do you think that stopped me? No, it did not. And I was very glad I'd had a stint at veganism in college - I pulled out all the old "fake cheese" tricks.

Healthy Lasagna

1/2 box lasagna noodles (more like 3/5)

1 jar pasta sauce (actually 4/5 of a jar)
I should have used a second jar of sauce, but I didn't have it, so I used 1 small can tomato paste, and about 2-3 cans of water, plus a tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning.
1 small jar olive tapenade (optional)

Mix the tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and olive tapenade in a medium bowl (easier if you just have 2 jars of sauce - no mixing required).

1 package firm tofu (soft, silken tofu would have been better - a little more wet; this replaced 1-2 cups of ricotta or cottage cheese)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup "dry" parmesan (like Kraft)
2 eggs

Crumble the tofu into the bowl. Add the eggs, nutritional yeast and parmesan. Mix well.


1 tomato, slice thin
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

Alternate layers of:
sauce
noodles
cheese mixture

Top with sliced tomato and grated parmesan. Tomato could also go in the middle. Cook for 60-90 minutes, until noodles are soft.

Mini Caprese

Heirloom tomatoes are not quite in season, so I got the heirloom cherry tomatoes instead. I think they grow better in a greenhouse, so are better out of season than the large ones.

1 package heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 package small mozzarella balls in brine (drained)
1 large spoonful of pesto

Mix all ingredients together and let marinate 30-60 minutes. Yum! I also added a tiny bit of extra olive oil.

Marshall says: Well, he didn't say much, except he did warn our neighbors that it was "hippie lasagna." Everyone pretty much liked it, but agreed it could be a little saucier. I think 2 jars of sauce would have done the trick, because the made up sauce was thicker, and so probably got drier from cooking than regular sauce would have.
Serves: a lot of people
Total time: 30 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking, 2 hours total
Leftovers: We had 4 people eat, and we didn't eat half of the pan of lasagna. At least 4 servings leftover.