Skillet Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna in less than 45 minutes, start to finish?  That’s worth writing about!  I may never make lasagna the old traditional way ever again.  (That’s probably not true since all my lasagnas on my blog are pretty darn great!  SEE BELOW.)  I’ve heard about slow cooker lasagnas and may still need to try that method, but that still takes hours to make.  This skillet lasagna is so quick and quite frankly, pretty fun to make with all the layers built right into my wide, deep skillet, covered and simmered until done in about 20 to 25 minutes stove top.  I call that a victory!

I’ve pulled out all the stops on flavor with this dish.  The sauce is rich and meaty made with ground sirloin and Italian turkey sausage with chunks of stewed tomatoes, fresh and/or dried herbs and bottled marinara sauce for convenience.  I love the riccotta cheese layer made with part-skim milk ricotta, Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs.  Then because I can and because all lasagnas need another layer of nutritional goodness (to fool the kids and to please the mommas), I layer in ribbons of zucchini, shredded carrot and mounds of fresh spinach leaves.

The whole recipe is made possible with oven-ready lasagna noodles.  These are flat pasta noodles which do not require pre-boiling.  They’re thinner than regular lasagna noodles, precooked and then dried, so they can soften during baking with just the moisture from the sauce.  They’re not perfect, as in you might miss the traditional thickness of regular pasta, but the time savings is worth it in my opinion.

I made this dish for a good friend last week and she said her family loved it and that the leftovers were amazing!  I used my big cast-iron skillet which made it easier to transport to her house and also allowed her to more easily reheat it versus using my usual deep skillet with the handle.  I haven’t tried using my electric skillet, but I see no reason why that wouldn’t work great too.

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