Eggplant & Zucchini Lasagna

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Recipe from Cooking Club

Would you believe this is the first time I've ever made lasagna?  I have no idea why.  It's not like it's a difficult thing to make.  Maybe it's J's aversion to ricotta.  Although I can simply substitute cottage cheese.  Or maybe it was that before there were no-boil noodles, I thought it seemed like too much of a pain to cook them, try to get them out with sticking together, falling apart, or burning my fingers.  Whatever the reason, I will definitely be making it again. 

This recipe was fabulous!  I absolutely loved the addition of the cream cheese to give it a nice, creamy texture.  I did use a store-bought sauce because I had used all of my tomatoes for salsa and hot sauce.  But I had my zucchini and eggplant fresh from the garden! :)

I used 2 square disposable aluminum pans for this lasagna.  That way we could eat one (with some leftovers for lunch or whatever) and I froze the other.  I froze the second pan before I even cooked it.  I'll cook it at 350 for about 1 hour 10 minutes when we're ready to eat it.

Using the small pans, I did have to break the lasagna noodles to make them fit.  Kind of a pain, but it worked well!  As you can tell from the picture I did use quite a bit of sauce.  About a whole jar per pan.  For two reasons: 1) I like sauce! :) and 2) I wanted to make sure there was enough for the noodles to cook.

Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
1 medium eggplant, chopped (about 3-4 cups)
2 1/2 c chopped mushrooms
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t dried thyme, divided
Salt & pepper, to taste
9-12 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 c cottage cheese
8 ou cream cheese, softened
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
2 c shredded mozarella
1 large jar pasta sauce

Directions:
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat.  Cook eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, onion, 1 t thyme and salt & pepper until vegetables are tender, about 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.

In a small bowl, mix the cottage cheese, cream cheese, 1/2 t thyme, salt and pepper and 1/4 c Parmesan cheese.

In a 9x13 baking dish spread a layer of sauce to prevent sticking.  Layer on 3 noodles and then more sauce.  Then add in 1/3 of the veggie mixture, 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture, 1/2 c of the mozzarella and then repeat, starting with the sauce, two more times - ending with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 50-60 minutes, until golden brown.  If browning too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil.  Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.