California wedding lasagna (with roasted veggies and smoked cheese). A wedding story and a Pyrex disaster.

Almost 15 years ago, my husband and I got married in the ornate Beaux-Arts San Francisco city hall and had a casual party in the courtyard of our tiny Outer Sunset apartment. I made all the food at the reception, except the cake, which we ordered from Lucky (they forgot to make it and pulled one together at the last minute). We were not yet pescatarian at the time, but most of our friends were, because San Francisco. Back then, it felt like a challenge to make a vegetarian meal, and I really wanted it to taste hearty and meaty, so I developed a lasagna studded with a variety of roasted veggies and smoked cheese. Afterward, instead of a first dance, my husband and I played a Rockband set. Our wedding was totally "us," and everyone dug the food. 

I haven't made that lasagna since, because I didn't have a recipe, so I set about recreating and updating it. It did not go well. I roasted the veg and prepped each layer. Each layer was perfectly seasoned and I was excited to taste them together. It seemed like I had captured the recipe! I assembled the entire lasagna in my Pyrex baking dish, and it was ready to go in the oven. While I turned around to grab my oven mitts, something happened! Was it a ghost? Did I place it in a a precarious spot on top of the oven? Probably a ghost. I heard a loud crash and felt gooey broken glass scatter around my feet. The entire lasagna was slumped upside-down on the floor in a wet pile, glistening with broken glass.* Tiny red shards of glass covered the entire kitchen floor and beyond. I was barefoot and could not move beyond the snow angels of glass around my feet. I had to yell to my husband to throw me some shoes. When he got a view of the kitchen, he was stunned for a minute, mouth hanging open. He ended up doing most of the cleanup because I was so devastated that my special lasagna had been destroyed. We scooped up the heavy, wet pile of lasagna with a shovel and ordered sushi.

Marriage is about dedication, and I am nothing if not persistent. I was not going to let the wedding lasagna story end in failure. So the next week, once the sharp edge of my emotions wore off, I started all over again. Prep was easy, I had "practiced" the week before. This time, it made it safely into the oven in a metal pan. The finished dish was worth the chaos. The distinctive smoky cheese and multitude of roasted veggies brought me back to my wedding party. I'll definitely be adding this to my rotation, perhaps again on our anniversary, but never again with a Pyrex dish. If you're looking for a simpler vegetarian lasagna, you can try my vegetarian lazy lasagna. 

*This is not the first Pyrex disaster I've witnessed. Once, as a child, I witnessed my mother pull a Pyrex of baked chicken out of the oven, which unprompted, shattered into pieces in midair, leaving shard-shaped burns in our linoleum floor until we replaced it. Amazingly, no one was hurt, and I did not learn my Pyrex lesson.

Roasted veggies:
1 onion, sliced into strips

1 red or orange bell pepper, sliced into strips

1 lb button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch planks
1 zucchini, sliced into 1/2 inch planks
1 t kosher salt
a few grinds black pepper
3 T olive oil
1 T balsamic or red wine vinegar

Filling mixture:
16 ounces cottage cheese or ricotta cheese (Years ago, I saw Cook's Illustrated's tip that cottage cheese is better in baked pasta dishes than ricotta, and I didn't believe it for a long time. When I finally tried it for myself, I was convinced. Instead of the sometimes mealy, dry, and pasty ricotta, the cottage cheese stayed creamy and melted a bit like mozzarella cheese. 
1/2 cup grated Parmesan 
1 t Italian seasoning or handful of fresh herbs if you have any on hand
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste

Other ingredients:

1 lb dry lasagna noodles (I used Barilla, which contains about 18 sheets)

24 oz jar marinara sauce (I like a roasted garlic or fire roasted tomato flavor here)

16 ounces shredded smoked mozzarella cheese (in a pinch, you can make your own by tossing the mozzarella with 1/2 t liquid smoke)

Instructions
Boil about 1 1/2 quarts of water in a kettle or on the stovetop. Lay out dried lasagna noodles in a rectangular pan or baking dish. Once water is boiling, pour over noodles and allow to sit while preparing the rest of the dish, about 15 minutes. It helps to shuffle the pasta around once in the first few minutes to keep it from sticking.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a sheet pan for roasting veggies and a 13 X 9 baking pan. Toss the veggies together in a bowl with their seasonings. Transfer to the sheet pan and baking pan, and place one on the top rack of the oven, and one on the bottom rack. Roast 20 minutes, switching pans halfway through. This way you don't even have to stir them! After they've finished roasting, remove from oven, lower the temperature to 400, and begin layering lasagna.

In the meantime, in a large bowl, stir together all filling mixture.

Here's a rundown of how you will layer the lasagna:

1. Spread about 1/4 cup marinara on the bottom of the 13 x 9 pan
2. Lightly drain the soaking water from the noodles. Lay about a 1/3 of the noodles (about 6) on top of the marinara in a single layer, tearing some to fit if needed.
3. Lay about 1/3 of the roasted veggies on the noodles.
4. Spread about 1/2 of the cottage cheese mixture
5. Pour about 1/2 of the remaining marinara sauce
6. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the mozzarella
7. Next, layer another 1/3 of the noodles (about 6)
8. Lay another 1/3 of the roasted veggies on the noodles.
9. Spread the remaining 1/2 of the cottage cheese mixture
10. Sprinkle another 1/3 of the mozzarella
11. Next, layer the final 1/3 of the noodles (about 6)
12. Lay the final 1/3 of the roasted veggies.
13. Pour the remaining 1/2 of the marinara sauce
14. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/3 of mozzarella

Once assembled, cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes after removing from oven.