Garden Tomato Lasagna with Pesto
Here’s a great party dish that feeds a horde and can be made a day ahead and baked at the last minute. It can handle an endless amount of fiddling—from adding more vegetables (I’ve tucked in layers of sautéed sliced yellow and green zucchini, eggplant, red and green peppers, and mushrooms, to name a few) to tweaks like eliminating all cheese (including in the pesto) for a vegan version created for my lactose-intolerant daughter (see Variation). Buy prepared pesto if you want less prep work.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 8 to 12
Ingredients
Pesto
Preparation
Step 1
Coat the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch pan or casserole dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil; set aside.
Step 2
In a large pot, add the salt to 5 to 6 quarts of water, bring it to a boil, and cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions (see Tip). Drain the noodles and separate them. To keep them from getting tangled, I drape them around the edges of the cooking pot.
Step 3
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan set over medium heat. Add the onion and zucchini, if using, and sauté until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Spoon the vegetables into a bowl; set aside.
Step 4
In the same sauté pan, cook the Italian sausage, if using, until it is no longer pink, breaking up into small pieces as it cooks. Drain off the fat and add the cooked sausage to the vegetables.
Step 5
In the same sauté pan (no need to wash it), melt the butter over medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and stir until the butter evenly coats the crumbs. Remove the pan from the heat.
Step 6
In a bowl, lightly scramble the eggs with a fork. Stir in the ricotta, mascarpone, and oregano; set aside.
Step 7
To assemble the lasagna, place half the noodles on the bottom of the prepared pan or dish. In this order, add half the pesto, half the sliced tomatoes, half the sautéed vegetables, and half the ricotta mixture. Repeat the layers in the same order using the remaining ingredients, starting with noodles and ending with cheese. Spoon the buttered breadcrumbs over the top.
Step 8
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the lasagna until it bubbles around the edges and the breadcrumb topping is crisp and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve hot from the oven, warm, or even at room temperature.
Pesto
Step 9
Whirl together the basil, garlic, salt, and pine nuts in the jar of a blender or the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. With the machine running, if possible, slowly add the olive oil through the feed tube until it is incorporated. Otherwise, add the olive oil with the other ingredients and process until combined. Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the Parmesan cheese.
variation
Step 10
It’s a sad irony that my college-age daughter, Frances, has developed an intolerance to dairy products, ingredients I use constantly in my work as a chef. Luckily, she still likes my food, and I’ve learned to modify some of my recipes to keep her healthy, including lasagna. For Franny, I make homemade pesto as above but eliminate the Parmesan cheese. I use whatever veggies I have on hand, sauté them as above, and mix them with a 28-ounce can of drained, diced tomatoes. Needless to say, the ricotta layer doesn’t make the cut for my daughter’s lasagna, and instead of butter, I use an equal amount of olive oil to moisten the breadcrumbs. Franny loved the vegan lasagna hot the first night I made it for her and—ignoring my pleas to let me heat it—she ate it cold straight from the refrigerator the next day.
do it early
Step 11
The pesto can be made up to 1 week ahead and refrigerated until ready to use. Assemble the lasagna up to 1 day ahead and refrigerate. Bake the day you plan to serve it.
tips
Step 12
When making lasagna, take care to cook the noodles only until just chewy (al dente, in Italian). Slight undercooking keeps the noodles from turning mushy when they are baked later.
Step 13
I prefer homemade breadcrumbs, easily made from the leftover bread I freeze just for this purpose. Toast bread until crisp and lightly browned, then cool to room temperature. Break the toast into pieces with your hands and whirl in a food processor or in a blender. For a more rustic look, simply crumble up the toast with your hands. If that seems like too much work, prepared breadcrumbs from the store work just fine, too.
