Here's mine, and it always gets raves. You could easily use ground beef instead of sausage. I learned to make this from my Italian friend. Italian Sausage Lasagna Serves 8-12 2 medium onions, chopped 6 Tbsp. olive oil 1 to 2 lbs. mild Italian sausage 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed 2 (6 oz.) cans Italian tomato paste 2 (16 oz.) cans Italian tomatoes 1 C dry red wine 1 C water 2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. oregano leaves 1 Tbsp. basil 1 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. sugar 2 C (1 lb.) ricotta cheese 2 eggs, beaten 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley 16 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated or sliced thin 1/2 C grated Parmesan or Parmigiano-Reggiano (use real Parmesan... not the stuff in the green can!) 8 oz. lasagna noodles Cook onion in oil until soft; add sausage and garlic and cook, stirring, until sausage is brown and crumbly. Discard excess fat. Stir in tomato paste, tomatoes, wine, water, salt, oregano, basil, pepper and sugar. Simmer uncovered for about 1-1/2 hours. Cook lasagna noodles. Drain, rinse with cold water and drain again. [OR, use this tried-and-true method shared by Ina Garten (I tried it, and it works!): Fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water; add the noodles and let them sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain.] Mix beaten eggs with ricotta; add 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley. Butter a 9�13-inch or larger non-aluminum baking dish (see note). Spread a thin layer of sauce over the bottom. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles in an even layer over the sauce. Spread 1/3 sauce over the noodles, dot with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture then 1/3 of the mozzarella. Repeat layering 2 more times. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top. Bake covered at 350F for 30 minutes; remove cover and bake uncovered for 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Note: Be sure to use a non-aluminum baking pan. Aluminum may react with the acid in the tomatoes to create a black, mushy, metallic-tasting mess � trust me, it isn�t good! This may also happen if the foil cover touches the tomato sauce for extended periods. Instead, use a glass, stoneware, or stainless-steel pan, and cover with foil right before baking. If refrigerating or freezing prior to baking (or after), cover the dish with plastic wrap and replace with the foil just prior to baking.

Lasagna is more about a method than a recipe. All of your ingredients sound good except for one thing: Moisture. You have lots of moisture and nothing to sop it up with--or, that is, I took this to mean that you want to use zucchini instead of pasta. The pasta is what soaks up the excess moisture, as well as the ricotta (if you use it well drained). Why does it have to have sour cream? Just because you have it? I think your ingredients sound fine except for the sour cream. The dish is light on protein if you don't use the meat. You could try draining the sour cream, or even adding some heat and acid to separate it from from the whey, but you don't need it to make lasagna. Okay, this might work if you really want to use the sour cream. Instead of making a tomato sauce, per se, use it to make a cream tomato sauce. Use your thicker canned tomato products, like some whole or diced tomatoes, drained, and some tomato paste. Recipe-ish: Slice the zucchini thin, lightly oil with cooking oil, and lightly season. Lay on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and roast or broil at 375-400° (depending on your oven) until well dry and just starting to get dark edges. Set the sour cream out on the counter to warm up some. Sauté a couple diced onions (or a giant one like they had at my store the other day), a diced red pepper or two, and 6 large cloves of garlic to a whole head, pressed or minced, depending on your preference as to quantity. Add any of the other vegetables you mentioned, cut to the same size as your onions and pepper--or steam them separately, and mix with dried herbs to use instead of meat. Be generous with the oil, which will help the viscosity of the sauce. Add chopped or dried Italian herbs: a spoon or two of oregano, thyme, basil, parsley, etc., plus some black pepper and, if you like a little heat, crushed red pepper. Stir in a can or two of tomato paste until you have a very stiff chunky sauce. Add the solids from your diced or whole canned tomatoes. Add salt to taste, but there may be plenty in the cans. Remove from heat. When the sauce has cooled down to no more than slightly warm, stir in the sour cream. Beat in an egg or two. Do you have any more cheese than the half lb. of mozzarella? Some bread crumbs? If you have bread crumbs--if this isn't meant to be a starch free dish--toast them on your baking tray. You're just drying them out. Or, if you have matzah meal or matzah (Cuisinart is great for grinding matzah) you can skip the toasting. The bread crumbs are there to soak up moisture and help with the gluing since there isn't much cheese. If you're making a meat version, brown the ground beef and add seasoning, herbs (try tarragon, for instance) and some tomato paste, or use crushed tomatoes and reduce out the extra water. If you're using the spinach feta chicken sausage, and it's already cooked, tear it up, or else cook it in crumbles. Make a béchamel, including the nutmeg, and stir the sausage into it. The apple sausage isn't a good idea with tomato. Or prepare the broccoli, cauliflower, maybe some carrots, and any other veg you want, as stated above, by steaming and dressing with a little olive oil and plenty of dried herbs. S&P to taste. You can use béchamel instead of the oil, but I'm losing track of whether or not there can be wheat in this dish. The trick is to chop small. Bigger than minced, but small enough not to be chunks that need to be chewed separately. Put a big spoon of sauce, without many chunks in the bottom of the pan and spread it all around, or oil the pan well. Lay out the zucchini slices to cover as much as possible. Spread on the sauce with a soft baking spatula. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, if you're using them, enough cheese to cover but being careful to leave plenty for the layers and a goodly amount for the top. Add a second layer of zucchini and sauce and a layer of your saucy meat, or steamed veg mix, or another layer of the tomato sauce, bread crumbs and cheese. Repeat the first layer and cap with a fourth layer of zucchini, or go straight to the topping, depending on the height of your dish. You can go five or six layers if you have enough zucchini, filling and dish. If you have any sauce left, coat the top layer of zucchini with it. If not, slightly dilute some tomato paste with wine and oil until it's just spreadable and use that. Sprinkle with herbs. Cover liberally with the rest of your cheese. Cover very loosely with foil and bake at 350° for about 35 minutes. Remove the foil and finish baking for another 10-15 minutes until nicely browned and bubbling hot. An alternative would be to make béchamel (besciamella) out of the sour cream. It's possible. I've done it. But it's so so so easy to make it go wrong and have it curdle or split that I don't really recommend it unless you feel very comfortable doing it. That is, it's possible if it's pure cream (ingredients says cream and enzymes). If there are stabilizers or even just added milk solids or something, don't even try. That's traditional lasagna, the besciamella is. Good luck! Buon appetito!

Butternut Squash Lasagna From epicurious.com For squash filling 1 large onion, chopped 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage 1 cup hazelnuts (4 oz), toasted, loose skins rubbed off with a kitchen towel, and coarsely chopped For sauce 1 teaspoon minced garlic 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 5 cups milk 1 bay leaf (not California) 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon white pepper For assembling lasagne 1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, coarsely grated (2 cups) 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 oz) 12 (7- by 3 1/2-inch) sheets no-boil lasagne (1/2 lb preparation Make filling: Cook onion in butter in a deep 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Add squash, garlic, salt, and white pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash is just tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley, sage, and nuts. Cool filling. Make sauce while squash cooks: Cook garlic in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, 1 minute. Whisk in flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk in a stream, whisking. Add bay leaf and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes. Whisk in salt and white pepper and remove from heat. Discard bay leaf. (Cover surface of sauce with wax paper if not using immediately.) Assemble lasagne: Preheat oven to 425ðF. Toss cheeses together. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in a buttered 13- by 9- by 2-inch glass baking dish (or other shallow 3-quart baking dish) and cover with 3 pasta sheets, leaving spaces between sheets. Spread with 2/3 cup sauce and one third of filling, then sprinkle with a heaping 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layering 2 more times, beginning with pasta sheets and ending with cheese. Top with remaining 3 pasta sheets, remaining sauce, and remaining cheese. Tightly cover baking dish with buttered foil and bake lasagne in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden and bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes more. Let lasagne stand 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Cooks' note: Filling and sauce can be made 1 day ahead and kept separately, covered and chilled. Bring to room temperature before assembling. Makes 6 servings

* Posted by ruthanna (My Page) on Tue, Jan 19, 10 at 10:22 Another spinach lover here. We most often cook it the way Althetrainer mentioned, sauteed with garlic. I often buy the spinach pies at our Middle Eastern bakery but have never made them at home. Since I rarely buy tomatoes out of season, we eat a lot of spinach salads during the winter. I’ve posted this one before. It’s on the lighter side and a good complement to heavy dishes like lasagne. LEMON SPINACH SALAD 1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms 1 lb. young spinach leaves, washed and stemmed 6 Tbs. olive oil 2 Tbs. lemon juice 1/4 tsp. salt 1 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese 1 clove garlic, slivered Finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon 1 hard cooked egg Freshly ground black pepper Wash mushrooms and combine with spinach. Chill. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, cheese and garlic. Chop up egg and sprinkle over salad. Add lemon rind to salad and grind pepper on top. Pour dressing over salad right before serving and toss. Note: Best if dressing is made about an hour ahead of time and garlic pieces removed before pouring on salad. Crumbled bacon pieces can be added if desired. ------------ Vegetable timbales have always been one of our family favorites for meatless meals. It’s common to find recipes for them in early 20th century cookbooks. Photobucket SPINACH TIMBALES 2 (10 oz.) packages frozen chopped spinach 4 eggs 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice Cheese or hollandaise sauce, if desired Cook spinach according to package directions; drain thoroughly. In small mixer bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Stir in cooked spinach and remaining ingredients except sauce. Divide mixture between 5 greased 6 oz. custard cups. Place cups on a rack in a 10" pot or deep skillet. Fill skillet with hot (not boiling) water to 1/2". Put a loose piece of foil over the cups, shaped so that the steam drips back into the pot instead of on the custard cups. Cover with lid and cook over medium heat for 18 to 22 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Loosen edges with knife; unmold. If desired, serve with sauce. Makes 5 (1/2 cup) servings. o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by annie1992 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 19, 10 at 11:33 Elery and I even made AND ate spinach this weekend, we did individual spinach and swiss cheese quiches for the "appetizer tasting". They were fast and easy and we did them without crust in mini muffin pans. Annie o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by bob_cville (My Page) on Tue, Jan 19, 10 at 14:46 beanthere_dunthat, The mint chutney that I usually use is a dark green runny paste. If you have a Coconut-mint chutney that you like then I'd substitute that for both the mango chutney and the mint chutney. A more authentic version of this recipe I came across started with making your own cheese. Yeah I'll get right on that. I found a mexican farmer's cheese at one local grocery store that was more like the "paneer" that is typically used, but to me the Feta cheese is pretty similar in in texture and "bite" in the dish, and although the Feta is much more strongly flavored than then usual "paneer", there are enough other strong flavors in the dish that you really don't notice it, and it is much easier to find feta than "paneer" or mexican farmers cheese. o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by denise8101214 (My Page) on Sat, Jan 23, 10 at 15:49 I got this from a friend who got it from epicurious. I have made it MANY times and everyone loves it. It is nice to make for a big family breakfast as a savory casserole in addition to the french toast type ones. Spinach and Cheese Strata, epicurious * 1 (10-oz) package frozen spinach, thawed (fresh works great too) * 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion (1 large) * 3 tablespoons unsalted butter * 1 teaspoon salt * 1/2 teaspoon black pepper * 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg * 8 cups cubed (1 inch) French or Italian bread (1/2 lb) * 6 oz coarsely grated Gruyère (2 cups) * 2 oz finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 cup) * 2 3/4 cups milk * 9 large eggs * 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard Squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove as much liquid as possible, then finely chop. Cook onion in butter in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in spinach, then remove from heat. Spread one third of bread cubes in a buttered 3-quart gratin dish or other shallow ceramic baking dish and top evenly with one third of spinach mixture. Sprinkle with one third of each cheese. Repeat layering twice (ending with cheeses). Whisk together milk, eggs, mustard, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl and pour evenly over strata. Chill strata, covered with plastic wrap, at least 8 hours (for bread to absorb custard). Preheat oven to 350°F. Let strata stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Bake strata, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed, golden brown, and cooked through, 45 to 55 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Strata can be chilled up to 1 day. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before baking. Here is a link that might be useful: Spinach and Cheese Strata o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by wizardnm (My Page) on Sun, Jan 24, 10 at 19:45 There's some pretty tasty recipes here! I don't do spinach, so I couldn't help much. Maybe I'll give it a try again....in the next 7 years. Then again.... I just drew a name for the next Cookalong... Caliloo (Alexa) hope you can pick something fast, so I can get it started, I have to leave town for a few days tomorrow. Nancy o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by wizardnm (My Page) on Sun, Jan 24, 10 at 22:00 Caliloo?? o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by wizardnm (My Page) on Mon, Jan 25, 10 at 7:22 TTT o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by caliloo (My Page) on Mon, Jan 25, 10 at 7:46 Here I am! I actually already got to pick something (corn last time) so if I can have a second shot I will choose...... BROCCOLI! However, if you want to give someone else a turn to pick, I will certainly withdraw my suggestion :-) Alexa o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by wizardnm (My Page) on Mon, Jan 25, 10 at 9:07 Alexa, I drew your name fair and square so you are on! **********Broccoli*************** Nancy Here is a link that might be useful: Cookalong #20-----BROCCOLI o RE: Cookalong #19-------SPINACH clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by sally2 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 25, 10 at 10:02 Well, I almost didn't do spinach last night, because I've been eating spinach almost every day, and want to branch out into other veggies. But I decided to just try something different than what I usually do, which is spinach salad, or throwing a handful or two of spinach into whatever soup I'm heating up. So, I made spinach pesto. I used a basic basil pesto recipe as a template, but changed the ingredients quite a bit, keeping with the general idea of pesto. It turned out quite good, and even DH liked it. He says he doesn't like garlic with spinach (go figure) so I wasn't sure if he'd like this, but he loved it. I used 2 cloves of garlic, but I think one fat one would have been better - it was a bit strong. I'll write out the recipe as I made it, though. My recipe is adapted from Deborah Madison's recipe for Pesto, from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Spinach and Goat Cheese Pesto 1 or 2 plump garlic cloves salt 3 tablespoons (or small handfuls) of walnuts 3 big handfuls (or cups, loosely packed) of fresh spinach 1 4 oz. package goat cheese 2 tablespoons pecorino Romano (optional, to taste) 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 squeeze, aprox. 1 teaspoon lemon juice pinch cayenne pinch freshly ground nutmeg In a food processor, process the garlic, salt and walnuts until fairly finely chopped, then add the spinach and olive oil. When smooth, add the goat cheese, lemon juice, cayenne and nutmeg, and process to combine. Sally