Easy Lasagna

Like Garfield the Cat I love a good lasagna but I don't like the hassle of boiling the noodles having them break while they are cooking, then burning my fingers as I try to handle them hot or ripping them as I try and place them into the dish, TOO MUCH WORK !!

I love the "no need to cook" kind of noodle. So here is a simple recipe for making lasagna semi homemade, you can do it all from prepared foods or make any of it yourself. Heck knock yourself out and make the noddles if you like, I am just going to give you the way I did it.

I use no bake lasagna noodles, a jar of pasta sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and for filling I used roast squash and onions.
I found this summer squash hiding in my garden.

I chopped it up , removing any seeds that were too large, chopped an onion, tossed it all with olive oil and roasted it at 400 F for 45 minutes, stirring it a couple of times. It's the same way I do it when I freeze it.

You can also fill your lasagna with cooked greens like spinach or chard, sauteed ground beef, mushrooms, roasted eggplant, ricotta cheese... the possiblities are endless. In fact my daughter recently made a lasagna without noodles using slices of summer squash and eggplant instead.

This lasagna is best made the day before or that morning so the liquids from the sauce and filling can soak into the noodles.
I start by spraying the baking dish with a little bit of olive oil and a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodles, filling, cheese and more sauce.

Repeat for a couple of layers, ending with noodles and sauce.

Save a bit a cheese for later and cover with foil and store in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.
Bring it out an hour ahead if you can, preheat the oven to 375 and bake for a total of one hour . Remove the foil after 45 minutes and sprinkle with cheese for the last 15 minutes.
It is really best it you let it cool for 15 minutes before you serve it.

 And of course it is great as leftovers !!