Black Betty :: Recipes :: Spicy Vegetarian Lasagna

Easy to make, spicy enough to melt your face, and hearty enough as a complete meal, even though it's meatless!

Yield: 8
Prep time: 45 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Course: Main Dishes

Ingredients:

• I pkg. no-boil lasagna noodles
• 4 bell peppers (red, green, yellow, orange)
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 pkg pre-sliced baby portabella mushrooms
• 1 bag frozen whole-leaf spinach, thawed
• 2 jars spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzerella
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 1 cup shredded parmesan
• 1 pkg. small curd cottage cheese
• 4 eggs
• italian spices
• crushed red pepper (the more the better!)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced (to keep the vampires away!)

Instructions:

In a large pot, heat up some olive oil (a couple of tbsps will do) and when you can smell it, toss in the minced garlic.  Right before that starts to brown, throw in your onions, zucchini, and bell peppers, all coarsely chopped.

When the onions begin to wilt, go ahead and throw in your mushrooms.  While your veggies are cooking, toss your eggs, cottage cheese, and all the shredded cheeses (except for 1/2 cup of the parmesan!) with some italian spices in a medium-large bowl.  Set aside and get back to your veggies.  When they're all nice and soft, pour in the two jars of spaghetti sauce and your thawed spinach.  Give it a good stir, then add your italian spices and your crushed red pepper.  I use about a quarter cup of red pepper, and that makes it muy caliente, but you can add more or less to taste.

Set the pot to low heat and simmer for about thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.  While you're doing this, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and sit back and have a glass of wine.

 After half an hour, you'll start to build your lasagna:   First spread some of your veggie-sauce around on the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish.  Then add enough lasagna noodles to cover, then another layer of veggie-sauce, then enough cheese mixture to cover.  Next, some more noodles, then veggie-sauce, then cheese.  Repeat until you start to run out of stuff, then top it off with some veggie-sauce and the rest of the shredded parmesan.  Cover with some tin foil and bake for 30 minutes.

After half an hour, uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the parmesan on top gets nice and brown.  The sauce may be a little runny straight from the oven, so it's best to let it sit for 10-15 minutes to cool and firm up.  Enjoy!