A Long Story About Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

This was the first lasagna I ever made, and I will probably not ever be able to duplicate the recipe. It is sort of a long story, which is why it took me so long to blog about it. I'll give it a go...

Back in July, I cut up about a million green and yellow squash, mushrooms, peppers, and onions, and marinated them in some homemade italian dressing. I brought them to our family picnic, and skewered them for the BBQ, but there was really too much food, and I ended up with a whole gallon ziplock bag of veggies that didn't make it onto skewers.

Now, normally, I would just cook them at home, but I didn't. I don't remember why. Maybe because Andrew doesn't eat mushrooms or peppers.... Anyway, I stuck them in the freezer knowing that it might be a bad idea, and they might get totally sogged out. A gallon freezer-bag stuffed full of chopped up veggies is a really annoying thing to have to maneuver around in your freezer, so I finally got sick of it in there and put it in the fridge to defrost.
I thought that maybe I could make them into a vegetable lasagna if I cut up the veggies even more and used a LOT of cheese (yay cheese). I looked up some recipes and couldn't find anything quite right, so I took some bits from here and there and made my own recipe. I was really hoping it turned out well, because all of that cheese was very expensive. (What is up with ricotta cheese costing so much??) My main concern was the water factor. I knew that the veggies might sog up the lasagna, so I roasted them first at 400 for about 45 minutes so they released most of their water during roasting, instead of during lasagna time.
As you can see from the pics, it turned out to be a very pretty lasagna, and it was also very yummy!

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
6 cups diced vegetables, marinated in italian seasonings, roasted, cooled and drained
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed (squeezed out all the water)
2 lbs ricotta cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp salt
2 cups fat free half and half (or milk)
1 cup skim milk
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
2 packages no-cook lasagna noodles (genius!)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine first 9 ingredients, reserving 1 cup mozzarella.
3. Heat butter and garlic over medium heat.
4. When butter is melted, add flour and salt slowly, stirring to combine until a thick paste is formed.
5. Slowly add half and half and milk, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened. Do not let the bottom scorch.
6. Add cheese once mixture is hot and stir to melt.
7. Spray lasagna pan with non-stick spray.
8. Coat the bottom of the pan with white sauce.
9. Add one layer of noodles to the bottom of the pan, spread with 1/2 of the vegetable filling, then top with white sauce.
10. Add another layer of noodles, and repeat with the rest of the vegetable filling and sauce reserving about 3/4 cup of sauce.
11. Add top layer of noodles and add the rest of the white sauce to the top of the noodles.
12. Cover pan with foil, and bake for 1 hour.
13. After 1 hour, uncover pan and add remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese to the top of the lasagna.
14. Bake for 15 minutes. If top does not brown, place the pan under the broiler briefly to brown cheese.

Whew!

There are no tomatoes in this recipe, which is a little sad. I had picked up a container of grape tomatoes on sale (1.28!) so I sliced them in half and tossed with extra-virgin olive oil and salt, and served them on the side.