Chicagoist Cooks: Mushroom Medley Ricotta Lasagna

By Caroline Clough in Food on Oct 19, 2007 6:17PM

Last week, after making our soup, we found that we still had a fair amount of mushrooms in our possession. We put them in a container, into the fridge and didn't worry too much about them for a few days. Eventually, we realized that they had to be used. We considered a fried rice kind of meal with mushrooms or a tomato sauce, but neither of those things quite did it for us. So we did what we always do when we have something we have to use up but no idea how, exactly, to do this: we stood in our pantry and stared at our cooking staples for inspiration.This was another pantry raiding kind of recipe and we hope you like it. It's not fancy. It's not gourmet. It's certainly not revolutionary. But it is easy, tasty and frugal(ish).

We had about 2 1/2 cups of mushrooms (exotic, button and chanterelle) remaining unused from the soup recipe. The more mushrooms you have, the more potent their flavor in the lasagna. Our specific ratio led to a very subtle effect to the overall dish. You can make this effect far less subtle just by increasing the ratio.

What You Need:
2 1/2 cups mushrooms (whatever you got)
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 small garlic gloves, minced/crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons cooking wine
1 cup fresh basil (optional)
1/2 package Barilla Lasagna
1 jar marinara spaghetti sauce
1 container Ricotta cheese (part skim or whole, you decide)
3-4 cups shredded mozzarella
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

What You Do:

1. In a large stock pot bring water to boil. Also preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2. While waiting for your water to boil, sautée your garlic, salt, pepper and mushrooms until cooked through.

3. In a food processor combine the cooked mushrooms, fresh basil, Parmesan and Ricotta cheese until smooth.

4. Once your water is at a boil, add your lasagna noodles (we used Barilla and we like having to boil them. We think the end result is better than the no-boil variety). Remove after 9 minutes.

5. In a baking dish place three strips of lasagna down. Liberally spread the ricotta mixture over each strip. Then strategically ladle about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce over that. Top it off by sprinkling about 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese over it all.

6. Repeat step five until all your noodles, cheese and sauce have been used up to the best of your ability.

7. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes (or until the cheese on top is bubbling and a slightly browned).

Notes:

If you're a better cook than us you could make your own sauce. Heck, you could make your own noodles; we're just not that good.