GF Lazy Lasagna

Not the best photo – but really? This was THE BEST lasagna! YUM!

I am completely spoiled by My Love who truly is the best cook in the house.  I LOVE cooking and baking, but he has the talents.  I putter and produce tasty things… he putters and my whole family runs to the table.  Bah.  it’s a gift that he sometimes wishes he didn’t ahve, because I’m not too sure he is fond of cooking all that much.  That being said, let me just tel you that I had to complete shoo him out of the kitchen on Christmas Day so my mom and I could cook together.  (I LOVED cooking with her!)

The Lazy Lasagna was something my love created.  He didn’t believe me when I told him that he didn’t have to pre-cook the lasagna noodles before making a lasagna and that he could truly save himself a TON of time if he just tried it my way once.  And guess what?  It’s now the standard lasagna cooking in our house.  It’s versatile too.  We made this lasagna with some sweet Italian sausage but I’ve made it before with zuchini and other veggies in lieu of the meat.  (Don’t tell my Carnivore Love, please!)

For those of you who have time to bake something, but not the time to fuss with getting it in to the oven, this is the recipe we recommend.  It takes a little while to put it together (gets faster with practice) and you can put it in to the fridge to bake the next evening.   (We’ve done that for school nights/work nights around here to save some time when we are walking in the door HUNGRRRRRRRRRY at 5:00!)  I think it *could* even be frozen before baking as well, BUT I won’t swear to that as we’ve never tried it.  (So if you try it, post a comment so others will know too, k?  Thank you!)

Here’s the basics for our meat-laced Lazy Lasagna.  Feel free to adapt your fillings to fit your tummy. 🙂

Gluten Free Lazy Lasagna
Serves 8 (or easily makes dinner for two nights for two and a half plus lunches!)
We use a 9″ x 12″ pan that is maybe 2 1/2″ or 3″inches deep.

Ingredients
1 package Tinkyada Gluten Free Lasagna Noodles
2 (32 ounce) jars of pasta sauce  (My Love likes his lasagna saucy… some people don’t.)
1 cup low fat ricotta cheese
1 cup low fat, small curd cottage cheese
1 16 ounce package mixed, shredded Italian cheeses (mozarella, provolone, etc)
1 pound meat of your choice, ground OR mixed vegetables.
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt, pepper, fennel seasoning to taste

Directions

1. Sauté the onion until soft (or slightly carmelized, if you prefer).  Add the minced garlic and saute a littel more until fragrant (about 1 -2 minutes).
2. Add your chosen ground meat and cook meat thoroughly.
3. Add the pasta sauce.   Cook until heated through.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and fennel.  Turn off the heat.
4. In a small bowl, mix together ricotta and cottage cheese.
5. In your baking dish, label 1/2 cup of your pasta sauce (or more) to cover the bottom of the baking dish completely with a bit of sauce.  Top this layer of sauce with one layer of dried, uncooked lasagna noodles.  Top the noodles with a good smear of the cottage cheese/ricotta spread.  Top again with the pasta sauce. This time, be generous with your sauce. And repeat:  noodles then cottage cheese/ricotta spread then pasta sauce.    Be generous with your sauce.
6. Once you’ve finished all of your layers (you should be able to get at least three if not four layers of pasta), finish the pasta by topping more generously with pasta sauce.  Then top with your shredded cheese.
7. Cover with foil and bake at 425 for 60 minutes or until you can easily insert a fork through your noodles and they are al dente (or tender to your preference).

Happy Gluten Free Eating, Folks!
I’m off to run errands with the Chicklet, the Love and my parents.
~Kate