Vegetable Lasagna

When I had lasagna for the first time in India, I thought it was something exotic and really complex to prepare. Well exotic it is but I was wrong about the complexity. The recipe is really simple with a lot of scope for experiments (and a lot of cheese). So here goes!

Ingredients:
8-10Lasagna noodles (oven ready)
spaghetti sauce 3cups
mozzarella cheese shredded 2cups
Parmesan  cheese grated 1cup
Part-skim ricotta cheese 15oz
1 large green bell pepper finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper finely chopped
1 large onion finely chopped
3 jalapeños seeded and chopped
1 medium sized broccoli broken into small florets and steamed
1 tsp butter/olive oil
3 cloves garlic crushed/finely chopped
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp oregano
11/2 tsp salt
1 egg

Preparation:
In a pan heat butter/olive oil and add crushed/chopped garlic. Stir and add chopped onion. Saute for a minute and add chopped bell peppers and jalapeños. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and cook for 2-3 minutes then add steamed broccoli. Mix well, remove from flame and keep aside.

In a large bowl, take ricotta cheese, break the egg in the bowl and beat till properly mixed. Then add 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp salt. Mix well and keep aside.

In a greased 9"x13" baking dish, spread 2-3tbsp spaghetti sauce at the bottom and then make a layer of lasagna noodles over it in such a way that the noodles don't overlap. Make a layer of  half of each: ricotta cheese mix, vegetables and spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle half of the grated Parmesan. Now layer the remaining lasagna noodles and repeat the above process with the remaining ingredients. Top it with grated mozzarella cheese. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Cover the baking dish with silver foil. Put it in the oven to bake for 40 minutes, After 40 mins remove the foil and bake again for 15 minutes or till the cheese on top gets golden brown. Let stand for 10 minutes after removing from the oven. Cut with a metal spatula. Serve as is or with any salad.

Using oven ready lasagna noodles saves time and effort as they don't need to be boiled or cooked. However one can use regular lasagna noodles and follow the instructions on the pack.
Spaghetti sauce may be replaced with pasta sauce.
Grated Paneer/Indian cottage cheese  may be used instead of ricotta cheese.
Blending blanched spinach into ricotta cheese mix gives a different flavour to the dish.

Bon Appetit!