Lasagna with a Surprise Farm Fresh Filling

If you’ve been following along, you know that I have been to the farmers market and bought way too much produce. I grew some beautiful yellow squash, but also bought some more and I have LOADS of fresh tomatoes from my garden which made me think of this recipe. https://cathyathomeontheriver.com/2021/08/13/summer-squash-and-tomato-casserole/

Since I promised to make my husband vegetarian lasagna this week, I decided to do a mash-up of the two recipes. I am making a HUGE pan of this dish, so you will want to cut it in half if you are using a standard 9 x 13 casserole.

I am using my own homemade marinara sauce for this recipe, but you can use whatever kind you prefer.

First I started by prepping the squash and tomatoes–6 of each. I sliced the squash into 3rds lengthwise and the tomatoes about 1/4″ thick and laid them on clean towels (or you can use paper towels) and sprinkled them liberally with garlic salt on both sides. I let them sit while I prepped other ingredients.

Then I prepped my filling.

I combined 2 cartons of ricotta cheese, 2 cups shredded parmesan, 2 packages of frozen spinach (defrosted and drained well) and two large eggs.

By this time, my squash had drained long enough so I got my pan hot and put about 3/4″ of olive oil in it.

Then I coated the squash planks with plain all purpose flour.

I fried them in batches until they were golden brown and set them on a paper towel lined tray to drain. Then it was time to start building the lasagna.

I started by putting about 3/4 cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Then I laid 4 1/2 pcs of no-boil Barilla lasagna noodles over that. I don’t prefer this type of noodle, but that is what my little grocery had. I normally get regular noodles and cut them a few minutes shy of being cooked through.

I spread a layer of the filling over the noodles.

I topped that with cheese and sauce.

Then I started building the next layer.

I repeated the filling and mozzarella cheese and then topped it with the fried squash planks.

I topped that with the sliced tomatoes and fresh basil.

I put the last layer of noodles on and topped it with sauce.

Then I sprinkled more mozzarella on top.

I baked it at 375 degrees for about 75 minutes, until golden brown. (For a 9 x 13″ dish, 60 minutes is enough.)

Picture perfect!

It’s so good!