Leftovers #44 ~ Noodle Lasagne

Leftovers are a great way to create a delicious meal without wasting a morsel. Leftover pasta is never a miss when some sautéd onions and mince meat are added. You can also use veggie ground or mixed vegetables, if you wish. Add the cooked meat and onions to the leftover pasta and toss with a bit more sauce; pop it in the oven to warm up. Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top; allowing the cheese to melt and bubble and one has created a Noodle Lasagne. Filling and comforting, yes! 

I call this Noodle Lasagne not only because of the way it looks in the baking pan but because of it's flavour. It tastes exactly like lasagne without the layers.

Hope everyone has been having a great week so far. - JD 

Food Photo of the Day ~ Zucchini and Red Pepper Lasagne

This is our vegetarian meal this week which is great because that means there will be leftovers for another vegetarian meal night. Which sounds fabulous to me! 

Sometimes it is hard to keep the Food Photo of the Day to just one photo. I had to share this. Look at the layers of zucchini and red peppers nestled between noodles and cheese. I know, I am being a bit of a tease with this photo. 

Hope everyone's week has been good so far.  - JD 

Spinach Pasta

Not only do I like to share recipes and talk about cookbooks I also like to share certain kitchen, cooking, baking and household products on my blog. I usually make lasagne twice a month. On one of my visits to the Italian Centre I found these sheets of oven ready spinach pasta. They were a bit on the expensive side about $5.69 Canadian. Regardless once I saw them I was itching to try them. The package states that they cook in about 25 minutes and all you have to do is soak, or in my case run hot water over each pasta sheet, for a few minutes and arrange in a pan how ever you like. Easy! The spinach noodles changed our highly regular rotated popular dinner, that is a mouthful, into something a bit more healthy and fun! - JW 

Lasagna

It's all about layering with this classic dish. Whether it be vegetarian or meat lasagna it is a comforting dinner that won't disappoint! Preheat your oven to 375º. First prepare the 9x13 glass baking dish by adding a tablespoon of olive oil to the bottom and swish around to coat the bottom. You can also use a spoon to move the olive oil around then add some pasta sauce, whether it be homemade or from a jar, into the bottom of the pan. On top of the olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the pan. When done, set aside. In a skillet on top of the stove brown your choice of meat or veggies or both together. I used ground chicken. Soy ground is wonderful too! Adding fresh garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté everything until meat is brown and veggies are just tender. Return to your prepared baking dish and line with lasagna noodles... fresh, pre-cooked or oven ready. I used oven ready.

When the pan is lined with noodles add your meat mixture. On top of the meat mixture add a bit of grated mozzarella cheese. Layer with more noodles on top.

On top of that empty a tub of ricotta cheese and spread around and top with more grated mozzarella.

Again top with noodles. Covering the entire surface as best you can. You may have to break or cut them to fit. Using oven ready noodles is always fun because you have to snap them to break them apart. Then you get all these little bits. It is like a jigsaw puzzle that you have to put back together.

Once that is done add a generous amount of pasta sauce on top of the noodles. Add more grated mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce. You may also add freshly grated parmesan. Now your lasagna is ready to go into the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes until cheese is melted and all is bubbly. Checking after 20 minutes. Depending on your oven you may want to cook this in a pre-heated 350º oven for 35-45 minutes, again until cheese is melted and all is bubbly. No need to cover in foil... i made that mistake and some of the cheese stuck to the tin foil. It was not fun trying to rescue as much of the cheese as I could.

And when all is said and done your lasagna should come out of the oven looking like this! The cheese has melted. Everything bubbling hot and smelling delicious. Ready and waiting for everyone to dig in.

In the end this is what was left. Minus the piece shown in the pan. My nine year got a hold of that. Lasagna never last too long around here. - jw