Mel's Zucchini Lasagna

When we bought our current house 3 years ago, one of the things I was most excited about was having a space in the backyard to plant a vegetable garden. 

Kevin and I both grew up with parents who had vegetable gardens, so we were so excited when our new house had backyard space for one. 

My two favorite things to grow each summer are homegrown tomatoes & homegrown zucchini. Every summer, our zucchini grows like crazy, so I am always making recipes that include zucchini. 

I am so excited to share one of my favorites, my  Zucchini Lasagna.

 I made this recipe up the first summer we lived here. I took my original Italian Sausage Lasanga recipe & swapped out the noodles for zucchini.

Mel's Italian Sausage Zucchini Lasagna 

Here is what you need:

- Package of Italian Sausage

-Container of fresh mushrooms

- Container of Ricotta Cheese

- 4 cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

-Grated Parmesan Cheese

- Shredded Parmesan Cheese

-2 cans Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano

-1 Large Can/Jar of  Pasta Sauce 

- Zucchini, sliced (to use instead of noodles)

This is the Sausage I always use, it's sweet Italian. But, any Italian Sausage will do!

Cut up your sausage into chunks:

Brown the sausage in a skillet:

After it is cooked all the way through, drain the excess grease.

In the same skillet, add the cans of diced tomatoes & can of Pasta Sauce to the sausage.

Then add the fresh mushrooms (If you don't like mushrooms, don't add them!)

Stir everything together.

Yum!

Cover & let simmer for an hour.

After an hour, your sauce is already to go!

While your sauce is simmering, slice up your zucchini.

 I usually slice up 2 zucchini.

   Zucchini has a lot of water in it, so for moisture reduction, take your zucchini slices and put them on a cookie sheet. Bake them in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes.  

Pull them out, pat with paper towels, leave on paper towels until ready to put in lasagna. This removes almost all of the water from them.

 Once your noodles & sauce are ready, it's time to layer the lasanga!

 In a 9x13 pan, spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom:

Put a layer of zucchini "noodles" on top:

Add sauce:

 Add some mozzarella cheese & Parmesan cheese:

 Add the entire container of ricotta cheese to this layer. I just spoon it on:

 Add another layer of zucchini "noodles"

 Add the rest of the sauce:

  Sprinkle the top with more mozzarella & Parmesean:

 Cover with foil & Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Bake the last 15 minutes with no foil until the top is nice & brown:

YUM.

This is one of our favorite summer meals.

I remember the first time I made it years ago, Kevin was totally skeptical about the use of zucchini instead of noodles. But, he loved it.

I know you will love it also!

Enjoy!

Love Zuchhini?

Check out some of my other recipes using zucchini:

Zucchini Bread

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins