Week Eleven: Ratatouille Lasagna

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What better way to celebrate the slightly cooled Sunday temperatures and the boon of vegetable diversity in this week’s share than with a hearty lunchbox and freezer filling lasagna!

If straight ratatouille is a hard sell in your family, this is a good bridge meal – it can be completely vegetarian or you can toss some ground beef in there to stretch it and give it a bit more protein. We made our own lasagna noodles, but that is definitely *extra*, and not required to make this dish a delight.

And, as a special bonus, I bring you PROCESS SHOTS!

stir frying the zucchini (green and yellow), eggplant, and peppers

I am usually a “get right to the recipe” human, but these are some beautiful veggies that need to strut their stuff a bit. And be forewarned: This is a BIG recipe, meant to make two whole lasagnas with plenty of heft! But if you want to get your week’s worth of lunches in one go, and use up a lot of produce as well, this is a great bet.

some of the zucchini and eggplant are sliced in thin medallions and salted and drained, next to some sliced tomatoes for the instagrammable top of the lasagna.
topped with a bit of parmesan before it heads into the oven
crispy and colourful!

Print

Ratatouille Lasagna

Ingredients

  • 1 baseball sized eggplant (or equivalent)
  • 5 tiny wee eggplants (or equivalent) basically one share's worth, all optional
  • 2 baseball bat sized zucchinis, ideally one green one yellow (just kidding, re: size of zucchini, but use yer big ones for this one!)
  • 4 regular sized slicer tomatoes
  • 1 sweet red pepper
  • 2 tsp salt (at least – eyeball)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 bunch basil
  • 2 475g tubs of ricotta
  • 1 box lasagna noodles
  • 1/3 cup grated parmesan

Instructions

  1. dice about half of your zucchinis, half your eggplant (if available), and one whole red pepper, and toss in a large pan to sauté with some oil and a bit of salt

    (if you like yourself some onions and garlic, sauté them first and then throw the other veg in on top)

  2. medallion the rest of your zucchinis and eggplant, salt heavily, shake about, and leave in a strainer to drain for the rest of this process

  3. slice some toms too, while you're at it, but leave them aside

  4. once the veg are shining bright and starting to soften, throw a can of diced tomatoes in with them, stir, and let bubble for a bit (season as you like – parsley is nice, red pepper flakes, maybe some cayenne, follow your heart there)

  5. in a medium bowl, dump the two tubs of ricotta and two eggs in and stir. i added some parmesan here, but other recipes have added mozzarella, cheddar… follow your heart here too.

  6. dice up your fresh basil and mix it in with the ricotta. add some salt and pepper too.

  7. at about this point, set your oven to preheat to 400 degrees

  8. boil some water and cook your lasagna noodles, slightly al dente (not too soft)

  9. get out a 9 x 13 tray and an 8 x 8 tray, or equivalent

  10. lightly rinse the salted medallions of veggies and shake out a bit so they aren't too soggy or salty

  11. layer in sauce, then noodles, then ricotta, then sauce, etc, until you are basically out of room. finish with a final layer of noodles and then alternate medallions of veggies for a fancy four colour rainbow effect!

  12. grate some additional parmesan over top and toss in the oven, or, if you like, the freezer for later

  13. should take between 40-50 minutes to cook up nice and crispy, if you have both pans in the oven, but check at the 30 minute mark – our oven runs cool so who knows.

  14. congratulations! you've allocated a bunch of delicious veggies into an easily freezable lunch/dinner solution!