Colorful Vegetable Lasagna

I was craving a good vegetable lasagna last week. I really wanted my favorite butternut squash lasagna but since butternut squash is pretty much out of season by now, I knew I needed to find another recipe. I perused some Cooking Light recipes and found this recipe, which used more spring vegetables.

It turned out so delicious! I ended up making smoky marinara to use, which is my favorite marinara recipe to use with lasagna. Yum! The only other change I made was to leave out the mushrooms (not a fan of mushrooms). I thought it turned out great!

Colorful Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients
Cooking spray (as usual, I just used a little olive oil instead)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1 cup chopped onion
4 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (about 5 cups)
2 (8-ounce) packages presliced cremini mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
1 1/2 cups fat-free ricotta cheese (I used part-skim)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1 large egg
5 cups Basic Smoky Marinara, divided
12 precooked lasagna noodles (about 8 ounces) (I used the no-boil kind)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add bell peppers, onion, zucchini, and mushrooms; sauté 10 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender and mushroom liquid evaporates. Add garlic; sauté 30 seconds.
Combine 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, ricotta, 1/4 cup Parmesan, and egg, stirring well.
Spread 1 cup Basic Marinara over bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray; top with 3 noodles. Spoon 1 cup Basic Marinara evenly over noodles. Top evenly with one-third of ricotta mixture and one-third of vegetable mixture. Repeat layers twice, ending with noodles. Top with remaining 1 cup Basic Marinara. Sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Cover and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Let stand 10 minutes.
Bruce Weinstein, Cooking Light
OCTOBER 2007