Hey there everyone! Before I get too much into tonight's dish, allow me to explain the above pictures. I made Individual Vegetarian Lasagnas tonight. The recipe wanted them made in individual gratin dishes with 6-inch diameters. All I had to use were these ramekins that were about 3-inches in diameter. Luckily, three and three equals six, which explains why it looks like I pigged out with tonight's meal. Also, my hand is in the picture to PROVE that these ramekins were actually that size (a point of reference if you will). Lastly, my hand is very red because I had just finished doing the dishes in some hot soapy water.
Onto the fun part! I made some marinara sauce last night to use in my lasagnas. I'm pretty sure I can make that sauce in my sleep now, and it would STILL taste good. I ended up making much more than I needed for this recipe and freezing it since future recipes will be needing some.
The first thing I did tonight for the lasagna was steam some asparagus. I had to call my mom on this one because I had never steamed anything before (I thought I would have to steam the clams in an earlier recipe, but if you can recall, I had to shuck those. That's something I only need to do once in my lifetime). I cut the asparagus into 1/4-inch thick pieces, as suggested by Giada, and steamed them in about an inch of water. Once the water was boiling, it took no time at all to cook the asparagus. I wasn't too worried if they weren't completely soft because I would be sauteing them later on. As the asparagus steamed, I drained a rinsed some cannelini beans and set them aside.
After draining my asparagus and setting it aside, I used the same pot to boil the water for my lasagna sheets. I will note here that I can now be the chef formerly known as the Queen of Improvisation. Tonight, I was the Queen of Efficiency. For making lasagna, I used hardly any dishes at all. As the water boiled, I drained one-third of a package of frozen spinach, then finely chopped one-quarter of an onion.
I'm not entirely sure how this happened considering I don't use my box of lasagna sheets as maracas or anything similar, but most of the pieces I had left were, well, pieces. I had to do some puzzle work to make up two full sheets of lasagna. A minor set back, and really who needs full sheets of lasagna when you're just going to destroy it when you eat it anyway?
As the sheets cooked, I added the onion to a heated pan sprayed with EVOO. I then drained the sheets after about four minutes, rinsed them, and covered them with a damp paper towel. I will note here that I transferred the sheets to a bowl I had used to press the water out of the spinach. This may not be interesting to you, but I am STILL impressed by my efficiency.
To the onions, I added half of a small carrot, finely chopped. Yet another side note: despite my sub-chef-quality tools (though I must say I probably have better kitchen equipment than most college students), I have become an excellent chopper. I used to struggle with cutting carrots thin enough to be considered "finely chopped," but now it just comes second-nature with hardly any effort. Just think of what I could do if I had a knife set like Guy Fieri...wouldn't that be a great birthday gift.....???
After about three minutes, I added one-quarter of a finely chopped zucchini. Giada's recipe also calls for a finely chopped yellow squash at this point in the recipe, but it's January, and summer squash is clearly not in season. Unlike summer squash, winter squash does have some WW points value and I was not willing to budge on my total for this dish.
I added the asparagus to the pan after five minutes and allowed that to saute for another two. Unlike other recipes I have completed, this one asked me to season the veggies AFTER they were cooked. Ergo, I added some salt and pepper to the pan, then removed it form the heat.
And now, the assembly!! I first put a teaspoon of marinara sauce on the bottom of each ramekin. I topped that with a lasagna sheet that was cut to fit the bottom of the dishes (actually, it was more like I solved a puzzle to cover the sauce). Next, I layered the beans, which had been tossed with some salt and pepper, and topped those with some spinach. I then placed another pasta circle on top of that along with another teaspoon of marinara sauce. Then came the veggie mixture divided equally between the dishes with another teaspoon of marinara. Finally, I topped it all off with one last pasta circle, one last teaspoon of marinara, then two tablespoons each of part-skim mozzarella.
The lasagnas went into the toaster oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. These ramekins were PERFECT for the toaster oven. I was thankful I didn't have to Rachael Ray my way up to the kitchen, or assemble everything then wait for the big oven to get hot once I was up there.
I must say, I absolutely LOVE this recipe. For one thing, anytime I can eat everything that's in front of me and consider it a reasonable and healthy portion size, I'm happy. Secondly, the veggies were completely cooked (obviously after they had been well sauteed), but not mushy as vegetables can get if overcooked. In case you didn't notice, this recipe didn't use any ricotta which I consider to be a staple of lasagna. I'm pretty sure the cannelini beans took its place and they were just as good. They were much different than any beans I had had before. They weren't firm anymore and became creamy in both texture and taste. Delicious!!
My second picture above was my attempt to show off the colorful filling of the lasagna despite the mess I made of the dish. That was really the only downfall, it was a little tricky to eat the lasagna out of the ramekins, but as I said before, lasagna is SUPPOSED to be messy.
Another successful dish, but my week isn't over yet! I plan to tackle TWO, yes TWO, recipes either tomorrow or Saturday. Check back to experience some Everyday Italian Throwdown history!!
