Garden Lasagna

Well, my garden may not have produced much this summer, but thankfully we have a lot of good gardeners in my neighborhood who love to share! I think everyone has a lasagna recipe that they use, but this is just one I threw together and I really liked how it turned out.

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

5-6 tomatoes diced

1 zucchini, grated

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

2 carrots, grated

1 lb ground beef (optional)

1 tbs oregano

2 tsp basil

Pinch of thyme

Pinch of rosemary

Salt, Pepper & Sugar to taste

12 Lasagna Noodles

2 cups spinach

16 oz ricotta or cottage cheese 

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1 egg

If using, cook ground beef in frying pan until done. Drain grease and set aside.

Place onion, carrots, and garlic in a large frying pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Let cook until water boils out and onions are transparent. Add tomatoes, zucchini, and spices. Let cook until tomatoes are broken down. Add a little water if necessary. Add mushrooms and beef. Cook until mushrooms have softened. Set aside until assembling lasagna.
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and let cool. 
In a medium bowl, combine egg, ricotta, and 1 1/2 cups mozzarella. 
To assemble lasagna, spread a layer of sauce (use 1/3 of the sauce) in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place a layer of lasagna noodles over the sauce. Spread half of ricotta mixture over the top of noodles. Spread a layer of spinach on top. Repeat process once more, beginning with sauce. Spread remaining sauce over ricotta and spinach and place remaining noodles on top. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top. 
Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes, until browned and sauce is bubbling. Serve and enjoy!

Pizza Dough & Sauce

This is my 'go to' recipe for thin crust pizza.... I had not made it for almost a year, but a friend invited me up Sat night -- her and her sister were making gluten free pizza, I asked if I could bring my own dough. As it turned out there were about six of us ... and it was amazing ;) Suzanne & I put peaches, tomatoes, fresh basil, prosciutto & parm on our pizza...)

Dough
1 C, 2 T Water
1 pkg (scant 1 T) Yeast
1/2 t salt (maybe a little more)
2 T Sugar
2 T Oil
3 C Flour

Start with warm water & yeast dissolving in bowl for about 5 minutes. Then mix till all ingredients are well incorporated.

If I am planning in advance, I'll actually make this the night before, and let it rise slowly in the bowl covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Otherwise, allow a couple hours to rise on the counter. the dough should be soft, and thin...

Preheat oven with pizza stone inside to 400. Once preheated, take stone out of oven,  pull off whatever size you want for your pizza and roll out thin on lightly floured countertop. Place on (flour or cornmeal) on stone. Decorate pizza as desired & bake 7-12 min. (The dough starts to cook as soon as it is placed on the the stone.)

 Sauce:
1 can tomato paste
2 cans tomato sauce
Small drop of balsamic vinegar
1 T oregano
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 dash of basil
bit of sugar
some onion salt

I know this is kind of generic, but it's all about finding the flavor balance... taste it, it is not popping with flavor, add a little salt, if it tastes to salty, add a dash of sugar..

Mom's All-Purpose Italian Sauce

 Mom found the basic recipe on a TV cooking program and then adapted it and it came out well.  It's a great spaghetti sauce, but it makes an awesome lasagna sauce, also.  Vary the amounts of each ingredients as desired.

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1  6 oz can tomato paste

1 medium onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

¾ lb hamburger

½ Tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil (we actually used fresh)

⅓ C. red grape juice

Pasta

Mushrooms to taste

Brown hamburger, onion, garlic together

Add other ingredients (may need additional water to allow enough liquid to cook down)

Simmer 20 min.

Prepare pasta according to package instructions