Zucchini lasagna

I have an unhealthy obsession with zucchini. I don't know why, but I love the stuff. It sits at the top of my list of favorite veggies along with asparagus and tomato, and pretty much every new dish I come up with has some good 'ol zuchs in it.

For my birthday two days ago, I had a major hankering for lasagna but wasn't really feeling like I wanted the weight of the pasta in my dish. Recently I made this poblano and corn casserole (okay, it's a lasagna. I'm not sure why I'm obsessed with lasagnas right now!) that had thinly sliced zucchini in it and I had a thought. A brilliant thought! Why not use zucchini thinly sliced in place of pasta? It just so happened that I had four bright, fresh zucchini sitting in my refrigerator, just waiting to be used.

If you like lasagna, you will love this. If you like zucchini, you will love this. I wouldn't necessarily consider it much healthier with the substitution of the veggies, but it made me feel just a little bit better knowing I wasn't eating 12 pounds of pasta.

I'm just going to say it...I didn't get any pictures. Plus, any pictures I would have gotten would not have done it justice. Gabriel ate this without complaint. Without crying. Without having to be fed. That's a lot considering we generally have to resort to the airplane in order for him to finish dinner.

Recipe
4 zucchini (I would guess you'd need about 15-20 slices, though my zucchini were small)
Sweet italian sausage
14 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg + 2 egg yolk
1 c. parmesan
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
1 pinch nutmeg
1 bag mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil (optional)
Marinara (or I used jarred pasta, came out delish!)
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Use 9x13 dish.

THE FIRST STEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP. DO NOT SKIP IT. Okay, sorry for yelling but this is muy importante. Slice your zucchini into thin strips. Give them some salt and let them rest for 30 minutes. They are like eggplant. They hold in a lot of water and after the salt has dried them up a little, you need to pat/squeeze them dry. If you do not, you will have soup-y, runny lasagna. I did and it was a dumb move. (Still amazingly delicious)

While you are letting your zucchini rest, brown your sausage. I took it out of the casing so that it was crumbly and spreadable. Combine your ricotta, egg+egg yolks, parmesan, parsley, oregano, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a bowl. Once your zucchini and sausage are ready, you can begin to assemble.

It goes a little something like this: thing layer of pasta sauce, zucchini, ricotta mixture, a little mozz, sausage. Repeat. A yummy layer of mozzarella and parmesan on top.

Bake for 50 minutes covered with foil. We sliced up some french bread, sprayed with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray and garlic powder, switched on the broiler to 525 and let them crisp up for a few minutes. Once they are done, you can pull them out, uncover the lasagna and let the cheese get bubbly and delicious and brown.

You are done. Now eat.

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