Supporting Local Causes: Aprons for Gloves Part 2 - Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Last time we spoke of bruschetta with balsamic reduction to support our fundraising feast for Aprons for Gloves and the Restaurant Rumble, which by the way, is happening TODAY.

Part 2 of our fundraising feast for one of our dear friends and hopeful fighter (shout out to Aston!) involves making roasted vegetable lasagna from ALMOST scratch (yes, almost scratch because we didn't really make the noodles).

Here it goes!

Roasted Veggies:

1. Squash: rub with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place in 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
2. Zucchini, red and yellow peppers: rub with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Place in 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes
3. Broccoli and spinach: blanche (2 minutes in boiling water then into an ice water bath)

Tomato sauce:
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup green onion
1/4 cup garlic (minced)
1/4 cup onions
1/4-1/2 cup celery (sliced)
flat leaf parsley
2 BIG cans tomato (or fresh stewed ones)
Crushed bullion (2-3 cubes) and prepared as directed
1-2 tsp italian herbs like basil and oregano + salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in the pan and sautee garlic, onions until fragrant.
2. Add celery, parsley and sautee for 1-2 minutes until translucent
3. Add the tomatoes, stock, and herbs and simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure to stir every so often, and then add the seasoning.

Bechamel Sauce
5 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
4 cups milk
2 tsp salt
Dash of nutmeg

Procedure:

1. Melt the butter and add flour in a saucepan over medium heat until the mixture is smooth. Bring milk to a boil and combine. Whisk until smooth and season with nutmeg (and maybe a little cheese)

Lasagna
500g mozzarella (we love cheese.)
300g parmesan (we love more cheese)
350g ricotta (all kinds of cheese)
300g emmental (we had some spare cheese to go with our cheese)
1-2 packs lasagna noodles (we used 2 boxes to fill 3 baking pans)

Procedure (and this is where we had fun):

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grate emmental, mozzarella in a large mixing bowl and set aside
3. In a glass baking pan, layer ingredients as follows: tomato sauce-noodles-tomato sauce-ricotta cheese-roasted veggies-parmesan, emmental and mozzarella mixture. Repeat until pan is filled.
4. Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until mozzarella cheese on top begins to brown.

This is what it should look like once you're layering the ingredients

Browned cheese on top! 

Layers of cheesy and vegetable goodness in this somewhat "healthy" lasagna. Well, not really healthy, but we definitely had our share of vegetables! 

'Til next time!