Zucchini Lasagna

Lots of us love lasagna, bake ziti and all the other wonderful casserole dishes. We also don't like to balloon up as result of all those carbs. The solution zucchini! This idea came to me by complete accident. During the summer plant vegetables and garden just to see what grows, I don't take it to serious. It saves at the grocery store plus it is real organic. Well my zucchinis went a little insane in both quantity and size.

Me holding one of my monster size zucchini's I grew

Now having an over abundance of zucchinis. First I gave a lot of them away, to the point nobody else I knew wanted anymore. I needed to figure out something to use them for, so they didn't go to waste. I came up with a lot of dishes one was Zucchini Lasagna.

Ingredients

Zucchini (however many you want to use)
Garlic
Basil (preferably real basil not dried)
Thyme
Fresh mozzarella
Pasta sauce
Red Pepper Flakes (Only if you like a little spice)
Olive Oil or Cooking Spray

Other Potential Added Ingredients (I didn't use them but I feel they might be a nice additive)
Ground turkey
Mushrooms (I tend to grow my own)

The Process

I used a frying pan that had some depth to it, that was oven safe. It was a red copper pan to  be exact which I can't say enough good things about it. I imagine you could use a casserole dish as well.

I don't think they make casserole dishes this long!

Setting Up The Zucchini

If you have a smaller zucchini I suggest cutting it length wise You are free to go the longer way as well with a huge but huge zucchini but to me so it really wasn't feasible. Instead I sliced the zucchini like bread but little thinner. Regardless how you decide to slice it, this is going to serve as  your pasta layer.

Prepping The Dish

Whatever you decide to use the first step is coating the bottom of the dish with a little olive oil or cooking spray to ensure nothing gets stuck.

At this point you will put a layer of Zucchini down followed by some pasta sauce. On top of that I like to put a small layer of garlic, basil leaves and thyme. Once again you will repeat this process with another layer of zucchini. At this point you will cap it off with a layer of fresh mozzarella.

This part is optional and dependent on you palette I like to add some basil leaves on top and red pepper flakes

Cooking

I don't recall the exact temp I had the oven set at but I believe it was 375 degree for about 20 minutes. A better technique to know when the dish is done would be the toothpick test. Simply take a wooden tooth pick and stab the zucchini, if it goes in with little pushing it is cooked.

In the end

In the end it should look like this enjoy =)