Vegetable Lasagna

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Tomato sauce

1. 1
   Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).

   ⚙ Preheating the OvenOven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 2
   Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
3. 3
   Add the onion and fry 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
4. 4
   Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.
5. 5
   Add the carrot and zucchini and fry another 5 minutes, stirring.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove
6. 6
   Add and stir about a minute, until fragrant.

   ⚙ SimmeringStove

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.

To assemble

1. 7
   Layer in a baking pan: the tomato sauce, the lasagna sheets, ricotta and mozzarella, and repeat the layers until all the ingredients are used up, finishing with a layer of mozzarella.

   Baking pan
2. 8
   Bake 35–40 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.
3. 9
   Leave the lasagna out of the oven 10 minutes, and only then cut.