Zucchini and Green Zebra Tomato Lasagna
Tomato sauce:
2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 2 hours or more
1 small to medium tomato, diced
1/4 small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin-olive-oil
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon agave nectar
2 teaspoons sea salt
pinch hot pepper flakes Pignoli "Ricotta":
2 cups raw pine nuts, soaked for 1 hour or more
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 tablespoons water
Basil-pistachio pesto:
2 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup pistachios
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra-virgin-olive-oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
pinch freshly ground pepper Lasagna:
3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
pinch sea salt and pepper
3 medium green zebra tomatoes (or other heirloom variety), sliced
whole basil leaves, for garnish
1. For sauce, squeeze and drain as much of the water out of the soaked sun-dried tomatoes as you can. Add the drained tomatoes to a high-speed blender with the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
2. For ricotta, place the pignoli nuts, lemon juice, nutritional yeast , and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times, until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the water and process until the texture becomes fluffy, like ricotta.
3. For pesto, place the pesto ingredients in a food processor and blend until well combined but still slightly chunky. For lasagna assembly, cut the zucchini crosswise in half, or into 3" lengths. Using a mandoline or vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices. In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini slices with the olive oil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.
4. Line the bottom of a 9 by 13" baking dish with a layer of zucchini slices, each one slightly overlapping another. Spread about 1/3 of the tomato sauce over it and top with small dollops of "ricotta" and pesto, using about 1/3 of each, Layer on about 1/3 of the tomato slices.
5. Add another layer of zucchini slices and repeat twice more with the tomato sauce, "ricotta", pesto, and tomato slices. Serve immediately, or cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature for a few hours. Garnish with basil leaves.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this recipe.
I feel a bit guilty admitting that I didn't follow the recipe to a T - I just didn't have the time to make a ricotta, pesto and the tomato sauce! So I went for the pesto and tomato sauce only, but still layered it, adding in a layer of baby spinach, just because I have lots of it and need to use it up!
Lucky last, the tomato sauce was fab, one of best I have tried, but again one minor change - it was a bit sweet for me so I added an extra bit of salt and a teaspoon of jelepenos - just gave it the extra kick I like, but perhaps thats a personal thing!
As I say, really loved it, the layering of flavours was really rich and effective. Thank you for utting it up here :) The raw section on Vegweb seems a bit thin but a few more recipes like this would be grand!