Easy Tomato Basil Lasagna

I made this earlier this week and wanted to share the recipe with you. We didn't have any meat at home and I decided to come up with a vegetarian lasagna (and I wanted to use the wonderful basil that we have growing). It's meatless, healthy and tastes great the next day.

What you need:

1/2 pack of whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 container of grape tomatoes

handful of FRESH basil

1 can of (low sodium) tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic (can do more if you want)

1/2 tbsp. of olive oil

1 tsp. of butter

1 egg

1 container of low-fat ricotta cheese

some part skim mozzarella and any hard cheese you have (Pecorino Romano, Parmesan etc.)

1 tbsp. dry oregano (optional)

salt & pepper

How to:

Soak the pasta in hot water for about 20 minutes (use really hot water not warm!).

Chop the garlic, heat up a pan with the butter and olive oil then add the garlic. Watch out, don't burn it like I did!! Add the tomatoes, sprinkle some salt and pepper, cover and simmer on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes can be easily crushed with a fork.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, oregano, some salt, pepper and 1 egg. Set aside.

Chop the basil, you should have at least a cup of it if not more. Don't be stingy here. When you rinse it, I like to throw it in a salad spinner, but you can just simply dry it with a paper towel.

Now, when the tomatoes are cooked, gently (watch out, it might spray) pierce/crush them with a fork, throw in the basil and cook for two minutes. Now, depending on how juicy and big your tomatoes are, if you don't have that much sauce add the can of tomatoes.

Next, assemble. Spray a baking dish (whatever size you have if fine, you will have more or less layers, no biggie) with cooking spray on all sides and bottom. Layer it with the noodles, then the ricotta mix, then sliced/shredded mozzarella and parmesan, then with the tomato basil sauce. And repeat until you are done. Finish with the noodle layer and sprinkle some mozzarella and parmesan on top.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Let it stand for few minutes before cutting. Yum!