February 27, 2014
I love pastas, but do not indulge in it too often (usually only before a race or long run). While sweating it out during my training sessions with Nicole, we usually end up talking about food or recipes. One day she described using zucchini as a pasta replacement – it sounded delicious!
I looked up some recipes online and used a hybrid of two recipes for the dish.
Ingredients – Inspired by Dashing Dish and Skinny Taste.
- 4-6 zucchinis (size varies depending on the season)
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 1 diced onion
- 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
- 1 clove of garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
- 16oz of light ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 425° F.
Wash the zucchini and slice them vertically (coin shaped) OR horizontally (paper shaped). I used a knife, but a mandolin slicer can come in handy. 
Zucchinis retain a lot of water, which can cause the lasagna to be watery. To minimize this, lay the zucchini slices on a baking sheet and put it the oven for about 10 minutes (you do not want them to crisp). This will allow the zucchini to sweat. Once you take them out of the oven, dry them on paper towels to absorb the water.
Dice your onion and garlic clove and saute them. Add the ground turkey and salt/pepper to taste. Once the turkey is finished browning, add the spaghetti sauce.
Mix the Parmesan, mozzarella and cottage cheese in a separate bowl. Take an 8 x 10 baking dish and start layering the meat sauce, zucchini and cheese mixture (I layer in that order).
Mmmmm cheese. Continue layering and add cheese to the top!
Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Voila! Turkey Zucchini Lasagna. 
This tastes even better as leftovers. I also freeze a few pieces to enjoy at a later date. This recipe is a bit labor intensive, but one of my favorite dishes to date.
Do you have a favorite lasagna recipe?
Have you used zucchini, eggplant or squash as a pasta replacement?
