Well, Lasagna is not photogenic! But I think the flavour is worth the effort and there will be leftover unless you’re more than two in your household. I make meals on the weekend for work lunches to box up and this one is perfect. You start out by roasting the zucchini and while that’s doing its thing in the oven, make the ground beef and tomato sauce, grate the cheese and put it all together for a final 15 minute bake. You may have up to 3 cups of the sauce over – I’ve plans for that and hope to post the recipe next.

My partner grows wonderful vegetables in a community garden each year. The zucchinis, tomatoes, shallots, garlic and basil you see in these photos are all from the garden.

A few notes:

-You will need large zucchinis! Also, I start out with a little bit of bacon fat with the butter here, totally optional. – I also add paprika and oregano to the melted fats at the start, the flavours infuse with the fats right away. Add more herbs/spices at the end if you like. – I heavily season the roasting pan before placing the zucchini slices. I honestly think it is as important to season a dish you are about to bake something in, add the dish itself. I use a cheap paint brush a lot in my cooking prep, especially to paint delicious olive oil on vegetables! – All the olive oil and seasoning from the zucchini roasting pans gets scraped into the lasagna bake, the delicious “scratchings” pop with roasted veg flavour. – Add a dessert spoon or two of the liquid from the olives to the sauce, it’s like olive essence! Never toss it away! It’s good in dressings too, a tsp packs a lot of olive flavour. – You could also layer roasted butternut or pumpkin, layers of fresh chard or even fat head pizza dough, prebaked, instead of veg. – I did not make a cheese sauce, but I would like to try another time. I was thinking a reduced cream and egg custard with cheese stirred in? That’s for another day…I ran out of time. – Start this early, it’s quite a long process. Ideally make in the morning, then bake before serving later that day after letting it rest in the fridge. Have a large casserole dish ready too, well buttered for your assemblage. Onwards!

Ingredients:

• 2 enormous zucchinis, the rogue ones that no one wants!
• Olive oil
• Paprika
• Oregano or marjoram
• Onion powder
• Ground pepper
• Ground salt
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 tbl bacon fat (optional – I always have it saved)
• 3 large shallots or 1 onion
• Ground beef, about 1 1/2 lbs
• 5 tomatoes
• Bunch of fresh basil
• 7 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 cup pitted olives
• 2 cups sharp cheddar

Method

• Thickly slice the zucchinis
• Pour olive oil in the baking sheets, season with herbs and paprika, salt and pepper
• Place zucchini on top, brush with olive oil and season again adding onion powder
• Roast at 400F for 30 minutes or until nicely cooked and browned (you can grill them under the broiler too, too get a nice roasted finish)
• Next, the tomato sauce while your zucchini roast
• Heat the butter/ bacon fat
• Add 2 tblsp paprika and oregano, let bubble 1 minute
• Add sliced onion/shallots
• After 4 minutes, add ground beef, cook gently until no longer pink
• Add chopped tomatoes, simmer 25 minutes
• Add tomato paste, olives and garlic, chopped fresh basil
• Add more herbs and paprika, salt and pepper if you wish
• Let simmer 5 minutes turn off to rest
• Prepare casserole dish, buttering it well
• Grate 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese
• Carefully lift roasted zucchini, with long flat spatula into your buttered casserole dish
• Scrape in the leftover olive oil and seasoning scratchings for extra flavour! If you don’t believe me, taste it. ; )
• Place in casserole dish (one baking pan=1 layer zucchini)
• Ladle over sauce
• Sprinkle cheese
• Repeat starting with zucchini ending with cheese
• Bake 15 minutes at 350F
• Serve with your favourite green salad or garlic stir fried greens
• Keto buns to mop up the sauce

The best peppercorns ever:

This intrepid little basil leaf in water on the counter started rooting. Nature and survival is an astonishing wonder! I did not cook this little guy, we’re going to plant him!