Simple Lasagna Recipe (Vegetarian)
Last year, we bought the French Laundry cookbook to commemorate our visit to the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley where we celebrated our honeymoon. We loved the food there so much that we thought we could make some pretty good recipes from their cookbook. We were disappointed to learn that most of his recipes are extremely complicated, asking for ingredients that are not easily accessible. One of the recipes we were able to find that was doable was their “Staff Lasagna”. We found this to be a simple Lasagna recipe that is also vegetarian.
When I first saw the recipe, I was a bit disappointed that it was vegetarian as I am a proclaimed meat lover. I also noticed it was a bit time intensive as it required simmering the tomato sauce for 2 hours to fully reduce the sauce and maximize the tomato flavour. In the end, it was worth and we ended up having enough lasagna to last us several meals! We just portioned out individual servings and put it in the freezer for those lazy days we don’t feel like cooking.
To Make the Sauce:
After cooking it down, add the tomatoes and simmer for 2 hours to reduce the sauce until it is thickened.
To Make the Filling:
Whisk together ricotta cheese and egg until combined. Then, add in chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To Assemble the Lasagna:
If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also enjoy our Quick & Easy Pasta Carbonara recipe.
Simple Lasagna Recipe (Vegetarian)
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups minced yellow onions
- 2 tbsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 8 cups cut-up peeled tomates (~12-14 medium tomatoes)
- 1/4 cup chopped oregano/1/4 cup chopped basil
Filling
- 1 1/2 lbs whole-milk ricotta (~600g)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- salt & pepper to taste
Lasagna
- 1 lbs lasagna noodles (500g)
- 1/2 lbs mozzerella, grated
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Sauce
- 1. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Add the onions and garlic and cook gently for 4-5 minutes or until translucent.
- 2. Add the tomato paste and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce turns vivid orange (refer to image in blog post). Then, add tomatoes and stir to combine
- 3. Continue simmering the sauce on the stove top for 1.5 – 2hrs, stirring occasionally every 10 minutes to prevent the bottom from scorching. When the sauce is done, it should be thick, slightly chunky, and reduced to about 1 quart. Add in oregano/basil and let cool to room temperature (~ 1hr) before assembling the lasagna.
For the Filling
- 4. In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta and eggs until completely blended. Add the parsley and salt and pepper to taste and whisk to combine. Refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- 5. If your lasagna noodles needs to be cooked ahead of time, do so now according to the package’s instructions.
Assembly
- 6. Preheat oven to 350F.
- 7. Spread a thin layer (3/4 to 1 cup) of the sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking pan. Place a layer of noodles in the pan, slightly overlapping them.
- 8. Spread a thin layer of ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles and top with another layer of noodles.
- 9. Reserve 1 cup of the sauce and spread the rest over the layer of noodles.
- 10. Arrange another layer of noodles on top and cover with remaining ricotta mixture.
- 11. Top the final layer of noodles and spoon reserved sauce over them. Sprinkle with grated mozzerella cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
- 12. Bake for 45 mins to 1hr or until the cheese is golden brown at the top.
