Garden Lasagna

This lasagna was a 3-day affair: I made the ricotta one night, the sauce the next night and the lasagna the third night. I realize this seems like a ridiculous amount of effort but allow me to convince you that it was both practical and worthwhile.

For one thing, after I made the lasagna I had leftover ricotta which I combined with chopped tarragon and shallots and used as an omelet filling for Sunday brunch. So delectable. I also love sweetening the ricotta and serving it with fruit as I did in this Peaches recipe.

Secondly, for the sauce, I froze about half of it which will be handy to have at the ready to defrost and serve over pasta for a quick, healthy weeknight dinner.

And lastly, this lasagna came together in a snap since I had all the components ready. The ricotta filling took a few minutes to whip together and all that was left to do was grate some cheese, assemble and bake. It reheated quite well and if it wasn't so tasty, I would have froze the leftovers.

For one pan of lasagna:

• 2 cups Fresh Ricotta
• Generous pinch of kosher salt
• 1½ cups roughly chopped fresh basil
• 1 large egg
• 4½ cups Bountiful Garden Sauce
• 9 oven-ready lasagna noodles
• 1½ cups mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor combine ricotta, salt, basil and egg. Process until uniformly smooth. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

In a 9 x 13-inch pan coated with cooking spray, spread a 1/2 cup of garden sauce in the bottom. Lay 3 lasagna noodles in the pan. Spread a third of the ricotta over the noodles, then a third of the sauce, and a third of the mozzarella. Repeat two more times. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top and cover the pan tightly with foil.

Bake for 45 minutes. Take the foil off the pan and bake for 15 minutes more until lightly browned on top. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes or so before slicing and serving.