I love roasted vegetables. Granted, I probably love fried vegetables more, but frying at home is complicated, mildly dangerous, and a colossal waste of oil. But also, roasted achieves a pretty similar effect, but with less effort. Anyways, the other day I had a craving for lasagna. But then, two issues arose: I had no lasagna noodles, or any ground meat.What I did have were copious amounts of herbs (which is strange because normally I either don’t have any herbs or only have moldly herbs), canned tomatoes, ricotta, and copious amounts of vegetables. So I figured I would pull a trick out of something I think I saw in Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings cookbook (which is amazing and full of recipes that look amazing and one day hope to make but most likely never will) , and use roasted vegetables as pasta “noodles.” And surprisingly, it worked.

I also made a super easy tomato sauce, that while it may not be something you find in Italy anytime soon, tastes pretty good, especially when you combine it with loads of roasted vegetables and cheese.

For the creamy element, I used ricotta, mostly because it was the only cheese I had. It’s very important that you whip your cheese in the food processor, because then it becomes extra creamy and delicious. But also, adding some shredded mozzarella definitely wouldn’t hurt.

Honestly, part of the reason I love this dish so much is because it allows me to break out my tiny individual ramekins, which I just think are so fun. Plus they come with cute little lids. Can you tell I’m getting bored in quarantine yet?

But also, this is great because it involves very little actual cooking, is sort of healthy and tastes delicious. It also happens to be vegetarian, but don’t worry, you definitely don’t miss the meat in this dish.

However cute these little ramekins are, they definitely were not enough for a meal, so I also whipped up a super quick side salad using the leftover roasted veggies, spinach, cherry tomatoes, and this dressing with lots of acid, creamy avocado, and tons of herbs that also turned out to be very good. I also added at the end some garlic bread, which was leftover from some takeout we got a couple days ago, which was much needed to make this a truly satisfying meal.

vegetable “lasagna” with chopped salad with creamy herb dressing

serves: 2

cooking time: 45 minutes

ingredients

1 lemon’s worth of juice
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch basil
2 tbs. chopped garlic
2 tbs. olive oil, plus more just in case
1/2 avocado
2 tbs. balsamic
3 cups chopped spinach
1 onion, diced
1 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 heaping cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
3 anchovy fillets
1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise
1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch thick planks
pieces of garlic bread, for serving

steps

Preheat oven to 430ºF.
Toss eggplant and zucchini planks in salt, pepper, and oil and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until planks are tender and cooked through.
In a large saucepan, saute onions over medium-high heat, with about a tablespoon of oil until golden brown, then add 1 tbs. of the garlic, and tomatoes, and add salt and pepper, and let simmer for about 4-5 minutes, before adding chopped basil to the sauce off the heat.
Meanwhile, whip ricotta with salt to taste until it becomes creamy and set aside.
Briefly run the tomato sauce through a food processor so that sauce is only slightly chunky.
In individual ramekins, layer roasted vegetable, ricotta, and sauce, repeating until ramekins or full.
Broil on high for 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in food processor, blend avocado, rest of the garlic, anchovies, the rest of the oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, basil, and parsley until dressing is creamy , adding more oil if necessary.
Throughly toss dressing with chopped spinach, leftover cherry tomatoes, and any leftover roasted vegetables.
Serve lasagna with salad on side, and pieces of garlic bread.