Garden Vegetable Lasagna with Cottage Cheese Cream
Browned eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and spinach with olives, layered with a no-cook tomato sauce, a no-cook cottage cheese and Parmesan cream, and mozzarella.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
American vegetable lasagna usually fails the same two ways: watery vegetables and a grainy cheese layer. America's Test Kitchen's 2012 Vegetable Lasagna, by Bryan Roof, fixes the first by salting and microwaving the eggplant and browning everything in batches, and the second by leaving ricotta out altogether for a no-cook cream sauce of "tangy cottage cheese (not grainy like ricotta)", heavy cream, Parmesan and garlic. It is the cottage cheese camp of American lasagna, and the hub's DISPUTED register already counts it: ricotta, cottage cheese or béchamel, "each has its camp" (see the register, below).
🇺🇸 This one is American
Browned eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and spinach with olives, layered with a no-cook tomato sauce, a no-cook cottage cheese and Parmesan cream, and mozzarella.
🇮🇹 The original
In Bologna, lasagne are thin green spinach pasta layered with a slow meat ragù, béchamel and Parmigiano. No ricotta and no mozzarella. See the Lasagne Verdi alla Bolognese recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Dry vegetables first
Salting and microwaving the eggplant, then browning the squash in batches, drives out water that would flood the noodles and concentrates the flavor (ATK).
Cottage cheese instead of ricotta
Blended into cream and Parmesan, it bakes smooth and tangy where ricotta can turn grainy (ATK).
🧰 You'll need 9 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Supplies
Step by step
- Step 1
Whisk the tomato sauce ingredients in one bowl and the cream sauce ingredients in another. Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the middle.
- Step 2
Toss the eggplant with 1 tsp salt, spread it on a double layer of coffee filters on a plate and microwave, uncovered, about 10 minutes, tossing halfway, until dry and shrunken. Toss with the zucchini and squash.
- Step 3
Mix 1 tbsp oil with the garlic and thyme. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and brown half the vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper, about 7 minutes. Clear the center, add half the garlic mixture, mash it 30 seconds, stir it in and move to a bowl. Repeat with the rest.
- Step 4
Wilt the spinach in the last 1 tsp oil, about 3 minutes, drain it on towels 2 minutes and stir it into the vegetables.
- Step 5
In an oiled 9 by 13-inch dish, spread 1 cup tomato sauce and lay in 4 noodles. Add half the vegetables, half the olives, half the cream sauce and 1 cup mozzarella. Repeat: 4 noodles, 1 cup tomato sauce, the rest of the vegetables, olives and cream sauce, 1 cup mozzarella. Finish with 4 noodles, the remaining tomato sauce and mozzarella.
- Step 6
Cover with oiled foil and bake about 35 minutes, until bubbling and the center reads 165°F.
- Step 7
Cool on a rack 25 minutes, scatter with basil, cut and serve.
Garden Vegetable Lasagna with Cottage Cheese Cream
Serves 8 · one 9 by 13-inch lasagna · 2 hr 15 min total
No-cook tomato sauce
- 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
No-cook cream sauce
- 4 oz Parmesan, grated (2 cups)
- 1 cup whole-milk cottage cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper
Vegetables and assembly
- 1 1/2 lb eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 lb zucchini and 1 lb yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 5 tbsp plus 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced, and 1 tbsp minced fresh thyme
- 12 oz baby spinach
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
- 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, minced
- 12 oz low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, shredded (3 cups)
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil, to finish
Equipment: Oven, Microwave, 12-inch nonstick skillet, Instant-read thermometer, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowls, Whisk, Aluminum foil
Method
- Whisk the tomato sauce ingredients in one bowl and the cream sauce ingredients in another. Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the middle.
- Toss the eggplant with 1 tsp salt, spread it on a double layer of coffee filters on a plate and microwave, uncovered, about 10 minutes, tossing halfway, until dry and shrunken. Toss with the zucchini and squash.
- Mix 1 tbsp oil with the garlic and thyme. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and brown half the vegetables with a pinch of salt and pepper, about 7 minutes. Clear the center, add half the garlic mixture, mash it 30 seconds, stir it in and move to a bowl. Repeat with the rest.
- Wilt the spinach in the last 1 tsp oil, about 3 minutes, drain it on towels 2 minutes and stir it into the vegetables.
- In an oiled 9 by 13-inch dish, spread 1 cup tomato sauce and lay in 4 noodles. Add half the vegetables, half the olives, half the cream sauce and 1 cup mozzarella. Repeat: 4 noodles, 1 cup tomato sauce, the rest of the vegetables, olives and cream sauce, 1 cup mozzarella. Finish with 4 noodles, the remaining tomato sauce and mozzarella.
- Cover with oiled foil and bake about 35 minutes, until bubbling and the center reads 165°F.
- Cool on a rack 25 minutes, scatter with basil, cut and serve.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Vegetable Lasagna" by Bryan Roof (September 19, 2012, serves 8 to 10). Quantities unchanged; method in our words; we add a 165°F center check. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (1)
Tips
- Use plain white coffee filters under the eggplant; they wick away the water the microwave pulls out.
- No-boil noodles need every drop of sauce, so make sure the top layer is fully covered.
- Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated; reheat covered at 350°F until the center reads 165°F.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Cottage cheese or ricotta. Disputed (already in the register): ATK picks cottage cheese for texture; most American recipes use ricotta.
- Eggplant must be salted. Documented as this recipe's fix for wet eggplant (ATK); not a universal rule.
- Who invented vegetable lasagna. Folklore: no source we found; make no origin claim.
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