Lean Mean Lasagne
Ingredients (serves 6)
- 1 cup sweet onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup sweet onion, finely chopped
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- fine white or black pepper
- 450g lean beef/ostrich mince
- 2 large garlic cloves, zested or minced fine
- ½ teaspoon each dried oregano and basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 can crushed tomatoes
- 1 large yellow squash, diced
- 1 large zucchini squash, diced
- 500g small, sweet peppers, cut in rings and trimmed of obvious seeds
- 3 bags No Calorie Noodles, drained, rinsed and drained again (cut with kitchen shears to make smaller lengths if desired)
- 400g fresh mozzarella (look for the slimmers option), cut in slices
- 120g fresh ricotta cheese
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- In a heavy saucepan, combine onion with one tablespoon olive oil and pinches of salt and pepper over medium heat.
- When mixture begins to sizzle, turn heat to medium-low and cook until onion is soft and translucent, stirring occasionally about 10 minutes.
- Increase heat and add mince, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks until no pink remains and meat is very lightly browned, carefully maintaining heat so onion does not brown darkly.
- Add garlic, basil, oregano and crushed red pepper, stir about 10 seconds and then add crushed tomatoes, stirring well until all combined.
- Cook over medium-low heat without stirring, uncovered, about 30 minutes until thick; sauce should just bubble gently.
- On a large sheet pan, toss both squashes with ½ tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt and roast until tender, about 15 minutes.
- On a second sheet pan, toss pepper rings with ½ tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt and roast until tender, about 15 minutes.
- Decrease oven heat to 160 degrees.
- Grease casserole dish.
- To assemble, spread ¼ of the tomato sauce in the dish, top with half the cut No Calorie Noodles, then half the roasted vegetables.
- Add about half the fresh mozzarella, saving the six largest center slices for the top layer.
- Dot with all the ricotta, followed by half the remaining meat sauce.
- Finish by adding the rest of the noodles, then the roasted vegetables, then the remaining sauce.
- Top casserole with the six largest mozzarella slices, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Allow to sit at least 15 minutes before serving.
- There will be a fair amount of liquid, which will absorb into the lasagna somewhat as it cools; reheating portions in the oven will dry some of this, but if you adore sauce, spoon this up as you plate the servings!