You won’t miss the meat in this delicious Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. It’s the perfect dish to make when you’re feeding a crowd and someone is a vegetarian. It doesn’t compromise on taste, so don’t be surprised when everyone starts serving themselves seconds.
This Roasted Vegetable Lasagna is a labor of love. It takes time to prepare but it is worth the extra work. The sauce is made from scratch but you can use two jars of marinara sauce in a pinch. This sauce is special because it’s made with mushrooms, packing even more veggies in every bite.
Zucchini and eggplant are the roasted vegetables featured in this recipe but you can add yellow squash or carrots as well. Seasoning and roasting the vegetables ensures they have the perfect flavor and texture. Unlike your typical meat sauce lasagna, this Roasted Vegetable Lasagna is light and bright, thanks to the lemon zest and juice that’s added to the ricotta mixture. It’s got all of the flavor with none of the heaviness.
This recipe saves a bit of time by using no-boil, oven-ready lasagna noodles. You can find them at Trader Joe’s or from Barilla at other grocery stores.
This Roasted Vegetable Lasagna is a great dish to make on a group trip. You can prepare the sauce and ricotta mixture in the morning and assemble the lasagna in the evening before dinner.
It can also be made a day ahead. You’ll just need to pop it into the oven from the fridge for about 15 minutes longer than you normally would.
Making an Italian dinner for a big group? Make this Big Batch Baked Spaghetti alongside this lasagna.
Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
Ingredients
- 1 lb cremini or baby bella mushrooms
- 1 large yellow onion
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
- 2 large zucchinis
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 lb shredded mozzarella
- 1 block of Parmesan cheese
- 1 large bunch of basil
- 1 medium lemon
- 1/4 cup of heavy cream
- 16 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
- 9 oz lasagna noodles oven-ready, no boil
- olive oil
- kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Make the sauce
- Dice 1 lb cremini or baby bella mushrooms and 1 large yellow onion.
- Mince 6 garlic cloves.
- Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced mushrooms to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes until they release all their water.
- Add the diced onions and cook for another 5 minutes with the mushrooms until the onions soften.
- Add six minced garlic cloves, 1 tsp of kosher salt, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, a few cranks of freshly ground pepper.
- Stir until garlic is fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Add 2 tbsp tomato paste and stir in until it turns a reddish brick color. It will start to stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Add 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes and 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes. Fill the empty crushed tomato can halfway with water and add to the pot. Stir the pot and smash any of the whole peeled tomatoes.
- Simmer the pot of sauce for at least 30 minutes while you prepare and roast the vegetables. The longer the sauce can sit simmering on the stove, the better, so feel free to simmer it for more than 30 minutes if you have time.
Roast the vegetables
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut 1 large eggplant and 2 large zucchinis into thick medallions. They should be about the width of your index finger — thick enough to roast with ease but thin enough to layer into your lasagna.
- Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and rub olive oil on the bottom of the baking sheet (or you can use an olive oil spray). Don’t skip this step or else your veggies will stick to the bottom of the baking sheet.
- Arrange your eggplant and zucchini medallions on the baking sheets and drizzle them with olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them.
- Roast your vegetables in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Take them out of the oven when they’re tender and golden brown on the bottom.
Make your ricotta mixture
- While your vegetables are in the oven, make your ricotta mixture by adding 16 oz whole milk ricotta cheese to a large bowl.
- Chop the leaves from 1 large bunch of basil and add them to the ricotta. There is no perfect amount of basil. Add as much or as little as you want but your ricotta mixture should have green basil specs throughout.
- Zest 1 medium lemon directly into the bowl. Then, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of half the lemon. Taste to see if you want to add the other half. Lemon brightens the lasagna, adding more flavor.
- Add 1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan and 1/4 cup of heavy cream to the mixture. Season with salt and pepper and taste it again to see if it needs a pinch more.
- Set the ricotta mixture aside until you’re ready to assemble your lasagna.
Assemble and bake your lasagna
- By this time, all the ingredients of your lasagna should be ready to assemble. Start by adding spoonfuls of your sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish (or a similar-sized deep baking dish) until it completley covers the bottom.
- On top of the sauce, layer oven-ready lasagna noodles. Then, layer 1/3 of the ricotta mixture on top of the dry noodles. Next, arrange 1/3 of the roasted zucchini and eggplant in a single layer. Finally, sprinkle with 1/4 of shredded mozzarella.
- Repeat by dolloping 1/3 of the sauce on top and spreading it. Add the second layer of dry lasagna noodles, ricotta mixture, roasted vegetables, and shredded mozzarella.
- Repeat one more time: sauce, lasagna noodles, ricotta, vegetables, and shredded mozzarella.
- Finally, pour the rest of the sauce on top of your layers and spread it evenly. Place the final lasagna noodles on top and sprinkle with the remaining shredded mozzarella. Grate Parmesan directly onto the top (about 1/4 cup).
- Cover your lasagna tightly with aluminum foil and place it on a baking sheet. The aluminum foil helps it cook more evenly and prevents the sauce from spilling over. The baking sheet is there to catch any inevitable sauce spills.
- Bake the lasagna in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes with the aluminum foil on. Take off the aluminum foil at the 30-minute mark to melt the cheese and continue baking for an additional 15-20 minutes.
- Take out your lasagna and allow it to cool (if you can help it) before serving.
- This lasagna can be made a day ahead and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to pop it into the oven.
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