Meatless, cheese lasagna
 

So I am hosting an Italian themed Murder Mystery Dinner Party in February. It is a boxed game, "Pasta, Pistols and Passion" .... lol. I want to make a pan of cheese lasagna because I will have meatballs and sausage in the crock pot, to serve on the side. Does anyone have a really good recipe for meatless lasagna? It seams that most recipes are made with a meat sauce. Another thought I had was baked ziti .... meatless. Anyone?

I do things similar to Tartan. I use about 3 different cheeses and have one or two layers of Ricotta mixed with an egg a couple handfuls of fresh grate Parmesan and lots of fresh parsley. I use a tomato sauce with lots of veggies (onions, celery, garlic, minced carrot (not too much or it will be too sweet) diced butternut squash, and no meat if I know there will be non meat eaters at the meal. I am not a fan of mushrooms, so do not use them.

Most the family eats meat, so I generally make a regular meat lasagne.

I love the theme of your dinner. Will Sex in a Pan be your dessert?

It is great that you are serving meat on the side, then people can choose to add it to their meal.

For my veggie lasagna, I use the new Ragu Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce in any flavor except the Meat Sauce. None of the other varieties list meat as an ingredient. I am very picky about my spaghetti sauce, and swore off anything from a jar or can for most of my life, but the Ragu Homestyle is almost as good as the sauce I cook from scratch.

I mix ricotta, parmesan, romano, and mozzarella cheeses with an egg or two as a binder.

For the pasta, I use the kind that does not need to be boiled. I thinly sliced onions, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, eggplant--pretty much any veggie I have on hand.

I do not usually add the extra liquid the no-boil lasagna noodles call for, as the vegetables usually release more than enough liquid to re-hydrate the noodles. Often, instead of pasta, I will thinly slice eggplant and/or zucchini lengthwise, and use that in it's place for a low carb option.

I layer sauce, pasta, cheese mixture, and veggies. If I'm using a deep dish, I will repeat the layers, and top with a final layer of pasta (or eggplant/zucchinni) and sauce. If it is a shallow dish, I just add the top layer of pasta and sauce.

I cover and bake at 350 for 35 minutes for a shallow dish, 1 hour for a deep dish. Then I uncover it, sprinkle with mozzarella and cook an additional 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and starting to brown a bit.

instead of noodle and meat use sweet potato delicious
Gale

I want to eat at your house.

You can make a cheese sauce (as for mac and cheese) and layer lasagna with it and steamed vegetables - spinach, zucchini, carrots, etc. It's always a hit.

You could also make stuffed shells. They are just like manicotti but easier to fill. And they are meatless.
You fill them with a mixture of ricotta cheese, mozzarella, parsley, grating cheese (I use Romano) and eggs. They taste wonderful.

yes, the giant shells. I gave up making lasagna when I discovered our grocery store makes it !

A good idea and one that I am considering. Do you have a recipe, Susie? Or do you just "wing it". Unfortunately, I like recipes.

Nita, how many people are you making them for?

My meatless lasagne is made with puy lentils. Usual tomato sauce mix, but lentils instead of meat. Or, you could just add roast mix veg to the tomato sauce base, and continue the regular lasagne recipe.

I make spinach lasagna. It is layers of noodle, cooked spinach, cheese and topped with bechamel sauce... that's a cheese sauce made with white sauce and grated Parmesan cheese. Only takes an ounce and tastes great. My non-spinach eating son loves it.

I have been making this recipe for years. Always a hit!


https://www.mrfood.com/Casseroles/Farmhouse-Baked-Ziti

Stuffed Shells

6 oz (1/2 pkg) Shells Approx. 18 jumbo shells
26 oz. prepared Marinara sauce
1-15 oz can Diced tomatoes
1-6 oz can Tomato paste
1 Egg
1 15 oz container Ricotta cheese
2 cups (8 oz) shredded Mozz. cheese(divided)
3/4 cup Parmesan(divided)
2 Tbs chopped fresh Parsley
Sauteed peppers and onions (opt)

Cook jumbo shells per pkg directions and drain. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of 9x13x2 in. glass baking dish with non-stick spray. In large bowl beat eggs, stir in ricotta, 1 and 3/4 cup shredded Mozz., 1/2 cup of the Parm. cheese and the parsley.
Spread 3/4 of the marinara sauce on bottom of baking dish. Fill the cooked and drained shells with the ricotta cheese mixture. Arrange shells in baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over shells, top with remaining Mozz and Parm cheese. Bake covered with alum. foil until bubbly approx. 45 min. Uncover and continue cooking until cheese is melted, about 5 min. Let stand 5 min. Serves 6.

I love stuffed shells! I vote for that! They’re good with some chopped spinach in the riccota filling.

Susie,
Including me, there will be 9 of us at the Italian Murder Mystery dinner party.
I am starting with an antipasti charcuterie tray. Then first course is Pastina soup. Next is main course of stuffed shells, meatballs, sausage links and garlic bread.
Last ... but never least .... an Italian Ricotta cream cheesecake

Thank, JoAnne. Sounds good, but I guess I would need to double the recipe to serve 9. Which would not be difficult. Are there really 36 shells in one box? That sounds like a lot for a lb. Of pasta? Could this have been a typing error? In any event, this sounds like a recipe worth trying.

Not a typo, it's been over 10 yrs since I have made the recipe and I've never doubled. So not sure how to answer your question. Good news is; it is a good recipe, tried and true type thing. I requested the recipe from a friend of a friend.

Jogging thru my memory, pretty sure you will use 18 shells and still have left over (uncooked)shells. Not to worry, they will be great.

I use wraps instead of lasagne noodles.

Thank, again. One more question for you, Jo Anne; I'd like to put the shells together on Friday, then refrigerate and bake them on Saturday. Your thoughts?

Nita, my recipe is much like Joanne B. I use Romano cheese but Parmesan is also fine. The large shells are so easy to fill.
Now I want to join you for this event! :D
About cheese- since I'm 100% Italian I'm a bit of a purist. I grate my own cheese and buy it from an Italian market. The only cheese I don't recommend are the ones that come all grated like Kraft (I think that's the one) The taste of those is way off!!!
Oh- and don't overdue the sauce :) You don't want a mushy mess!

Yes! You can def make them the day before. As I said just don't overdue the sauce.

LOL, I would love for you to join in the fun of this Mystery Murder Dinner Party, but the distance from Ohio to NY might be problematic (BTW, my hubby graduated from University of Dayton Ohio, so I know it is a l-o-n-g drive). Thanks for all your advice ... you and JoAnne have been a great help. Bon Appetite!

Nita, glad to help!
BTW I'm from Utica, grew up there and also lived for many years in Syracuse.