JUDI’S RECIPES – WEEK 19 – OCTOBER 12, 2021

OCTOBER 12, 2021

Hi Everyone,

Week 19! This is the home stretch. We’ll all miss CSA during the winter, but we are armed with some recipes that will keep us warm and cozy until next spring.

Today’s recipe is one for sweet potatoes. We all love sweet potatoes and we all love lasagne. So how about sweet potato lasagne? Brilliant!

SWEET POTATO LASAGNE

Ingredients

Cooking spray

3 large sweet potatoes (about 2 lbs), peeled and sliced 1/8″-thick.

2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 c. marinara sauce (available everywhere)

1- 5-oz package fresh baby spinach

16 oz. ricotta

1 large egg, beaten

3/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan, divided

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 1/2 c.shredded mozzarella (don’t buy the pre-shredded kind. They put other stuff in there to keep it from clumping).

Freshly chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9”-x-13” baking pan with cooking spray. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, then add the garlic and cook until you smell garlic (1 minute more). Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden utensil, until it is no longer pink, about 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Pour in the marinara sauce and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted. Remove from the heat.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, egg, ½ cup of Parmesan, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Spread a thin layer of the marinara mixture evenly across the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Layer some sweet potatoes on top of the sauce, slightly overlapping. Spread about ⅓ of the ricotta mixture over the sweet potatoes. Then pour ⅓ of the remaining meat sauce on top. Repeat to make two more layers. Top the lasagna with the mozzarella and the remaining ¼ cup of Parmesan.
5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake until the sweet potatoes are almost cooked through (about 45 minutes), then remove the foil and bake until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and the cheese is lightly golden (15 minutes more).
6. Remove the baking dish from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes, then garnish with parsley before serving.

HELPFUL HINT: Before covering the dish with foil, spray the inside surface of the foil with cooking spray so the cheese won’t stick to the foil.

I hope you enjoy this hearty dish.

Have a delicious week!

Best,

Judi