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Food & Home

Zucchini & Heirloom Tomato Lasagna

Owner and raw food expert Sarma Melngailis lends us a recipe from her first book, Raw Food Real World: “Our lasagna has been a best-selling dish at the restaurant since it opened. The sweetness of the tomatoes and the creaminess of the ‘ricotta’ create familiar flavors that appeal to most everyone.”

1. For the pignoli ricotta: Place the pignoli nuts, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times, until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the water and process until the texture becomes fluffy, like ricotta.

2. For the tomato sauce: Squeeze and drain as much of the water out of the soaked sun-dried tomatoes as you can. Add the drained tomatoes to a Vita-Mix or high-speed blender with the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. You can also use a food processor for this step.

3. For the pesto: Place the pesto ingredients in a food processor and blend until well combined but still slightly chunky.

4. For the assembly: Cut the zucchini crosswise in half, or into 3-inch lengths. Using a mandolin or vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices. In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini slices with the olive oil, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.

5. To make individual servings, place about 3 zucchini slices side-by-side, slightly overlapping, in the center of each serving plate to make a square shape. Spread tomato sauce over the zucchini, top with small dollops of “ricotta” and pesto and a few small tomato slices. Repeat twice more. Garnish with basil leaves.

6. Alternatively, you can layer the lasagna in a baking dish like traditional lasagna. Chill if making ahead of time, but it’s best to let the lasagna come to room temperature before serving. Any leftover lasagna, whether made in a tray or individually, will taste great if kept in the refrigerator for at least a day or more, but it won’t look as good (which doesn’t matter if you’re standing by yourself and eating it directly from the refrigerator, as we’ve been known to do at home).

Recipe courtesy of Sarma Melngailis’ Raw Food Real World.

*This recipe has not been tested by the goop test kitchen.