My husband and I love what we call “pasta Fridays”. We sure have eaten a lot of Friday pasta over the years! Perhaps this is because it can be easily one of the more frugal dishes to enjoy, or maybe it is just a lovely way to enjoy a cozy “date night” without leaving home! Whatever the reason, it is really hard to find (or make) a pasta dish that doesn’t taste delicious! And, the best part about Refrigerator Lasagna on Friday? Plenty of leftovers for Lazy Saturday!
ingredients
It was a “clean out the refrigerator” recipe, meant to use what I had on hand. Here’s the list:
- 100% whole wheat lasagna noodles
- fresh Swiss Chard, from the garden
- a partial jar of Marinara sauce
- a jar of my own canned “Volunteer” Pizza Sauce (from 2016)
- red chili pepper flakes
- TJs Mexican Blend Cheese (a full bag)
- TJs Quattro Formaggio Italian Blend Cheese (about a cup)
- a couple of slices of Havarti cheese
- approximately 1/2 jar of Crema Mexicana
- approximately 1/3 of a tub of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- some leftover queso fresco, from the local tortillería
- small amount of fresh buttermilk cheese, made for a guild meeting
- Italian parsley
- 3 small carrots
- 1 aging green bell pepper (“Eat me, NOW!”)
- 1 small onion (also “Eat me, NOW!”)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 very large egg (“Thank you, Violet!”)
WOW. That’s a long list. But, I didn’t have a lot of any one major ingredient (such as cheese), AND I wasn’t adding any meat or hearty vegetable (such as squash, mushroom or eggplant) — as is my normal custom — to the dish. It turned out to be just the right amount of everything!
instructions
[Important note: There is no need to precook lasagna noodles before baking. Years ago (before no-boil noodles were on the market), a family friend taught me this method he was using to make a half-dozen large pans of lasagna for his daughter’s wedding reception. Simply thin any sauce you are using with water, bake the dish one hour, covered tightly with foil, and then uncover and bake 30 more minutes. The extra water in the sauce will be absorbed by the noodles, and the resulting taste will be the same as the same dish cooked in the traditional manner. This is such a time saver and, using this method, I am able to use the 100% whole wheat noodles my family prefers.]
Combine the two tomato-based sauces and stir in some water to achieve the desired consistency (about the viscosity of a tomato soup); set it aside.
Crumble the queso fresco into a large bowl and add Crema until the mixture is the consistency of whole milk ricotta cheese. Stir in the remaining cheeses, reserving a small amount of the Parmesan for the top of the lasagna), and combine well. Chop the Italian parsley and add it to the cheese mixture. Set that aside.
Chop the onion, carrots, and green pepper and cook in a small amount of olive oil in a large skillet until tender. Season with salt & pepper and add the garlic. Add the chili pepper flakes to taste (about 1/2 tsp), and cook briefly to impart the flavors.
Remove the stems and tough center vein from the chard and chop it into small pieces. Add to the skillet with the chopped vegetables and cook until it is soft and excess water is released.
Lightly oil a 13″ x 9″ baking dish. Preheat oven to 350°.
Ladle a small amount of sauce into the baking dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Put 4 lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. Spread 1/2 of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles, and then 1/2 of the vegetable mixture. Cover with sauce.
Repeat the layers with 4 more noodles, the remaining 1/2 cheese mixture, the remaining 1/2 vegetable mixture, and more sauce.
Cover with 4 more noodles, more sauce (making sure the noodles are entirely covered) and top with the reserved Parmesan cheese.
Lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil and cover the dish tightly. Add another layer of foil (I wrap around the entire dish to ensure that it is tightly wrapped), and place baking dish on a baking tray (for ease of handling).
Bake for 1 hour. Remove the foil and return to the oven and bake 30 minutes more.
Allow to rest about 20 minutes before serving.
This was a very nice tasting dish. It was lighter than usual, but had much the same taste as a normal vegetarian lasagna. I could hardly tell any difference in the cheese portion, other than a bit of a surprise with some cheddar undertones.
What would I do differently? The flavor of the carrot and green bell pepper was nice, but I didn’t care for the texture. I think I would have preferred the carrots to be shredded rather than chopped, and the bell pepper to be in thin strips rather than chopped. It’s a texture thing, but without any more substantial ingredients, texture was a big part of the taste.
All in all, it was a success! AND, there are plenty of leftovers for lazy Saturday.