Roasted Red Pepper and Kale Lasagna (vegetarian)

As many of my meals begin I had a bunch of ingredients to work with and needed to come up with a plan for dinner.  I had made the red pepper sauce in anticipation of some kind of pasta dish but wasn't sure how the kale would incorporate.  I decided on lasagna!  The red pepper sauce has a different kind of brightness and smokiness than a traditional tomato sauce and paired really well with kale cooked in my favorite way, with smoky paprika and a bright splash of lemon juice at the end.

I think I could have had even more winter greens in this dish to bulk up its healthier aspects.  You can add to or replace the kale with swiss chard or spinach.  A layer of roasted winter squash would work well here too.





I also learned something about lasagna noodles while I was cooking this dish that I somehow missed along the way.  I never realized that I could figure out how many lasagna noodles I would need by layering them at the bottom of my pan (allowing a little overlap) and then counting them and how many layers I would build up with cheese and sauce. For the pan I used I could fit four across and so multiplied that by three layers.  And Voila I knew I only had to cook 12 noodles.  In the past I would always just make half the box and end up with extras that I had no good use for, except maybe for some uninspired leftovers the next day.




The Basics:
1. Roast peppers, remove seeds, skin and stems and puree into a sauce with roasted garlic.
2. Boil lasagna noodles
3. Sauté kale, onions and garlic in olive oil together and mix with cheese and eggs
4. Stack the mess.


Recipe:
Roasted red pepper sauce:
10 red, yellow and/or orange peppers
1 medium to large onion
1 head of garlic
1-2 jalapenos (optional, adds heat)
1 tbs.olive oil
salt and pepper


Method:
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
1. Place garlic on a sheet pan
2. Coat peppers in olive oil and salt and pepper and place on the pan.
3. Roast peppers in the oven on 375 degrees for an hour turning the peppers every 20 minutes.
4. Remove garlic at 30 min.
4. Remove peppers from the oven after an hour and allow 20 minutes for peppers to cool.
5. Remove the skin, seeds and stems from the peppers.
6. Place the cleaned flesh of the pepper in a food processor.
7. Peel garlic and add to the food processor.
7. Blend until you have a smooth sauce.


Recipe:
Lasagna:
1 tbs. olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1 bunch of kale
1/2 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper
juice of half a lemon
2 c. ricotta
1/4 c. mozzarella for the ricotta mixture plus 1/4 c. to be sprinkled on top.
1 egg
salt and pepper
12 Lasagna noodles



Method:
Lasagna:
1. Boil lasagna noodles until three quarters of the way to al dente and remove from water. Skip this step if you prefer to use no-cook noodles.

2.  Sauté garlic and onion with paprika, salt and pepper in olive oil until onions are soft.
3. Chop kale into bite sized pieces.

4. Add kale to the pan and cook down until tender and somewhat wilted.
5. Add lemon juice.
6. In a separate bowl mix ricotta mix egg, paprika, salt and pepper, and mozzarella.
7. Mix cooked kale, onions and garlic into ricotta mixture.
8. To begin layering the lasagna start with a 1/4 c. of the red pepper sauce on bottom of pan.
9. Then make one layer of noodles.
10. Then layer with the ricotta and kale mixture.

11. Repeat with a layer of noodles, layer of sauce, layer of ricotta, layer of noodles, layer or remaining sauce.

12.Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese.

13. Bake at 350 in a pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 min. or until top layer over cheese begins to brown.

Assembling the Mess:
This mess comes pre-assembled.  Just cut yo self a slice!

Enjoy!