Hearty Lasagna

This is a great Sunday night dinner with leftovers to eat all week! This is definitely a time-consuming meal (about an hour of prep time and another hour of cooking time), but the result is a tasty, low-fat lasagna alternative. This recipe first appeared in Cooking Light in 1995.

Recipe Notes

Instead of using a 28-oz. can of whole tomatoes (and having to chop them), I buy a 28-oz. container of the crushed tomatoes so that my work is already done for me. Watch out in hot ovens like mine - your cook time will likely be closer to one hour.

Nutritional Information (per serving - makes 9 generous servings)
380 calories - 10.5 g. fat - 33.4 g. protein - 2.8 g. fiber

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb. ground round
• 1 c. chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 c. chopped parsley, divided
• 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 14.5-oz. can Italian-style stewed tomatoes (petite dice)
• 8-oz. can tomato sauce
• 6-oz. can tomato paste
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 c. nonfat cottage cheese
• 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
• 15-oz. container nonfat or part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 12 cooked lasagna noodles
• 2 c. finely-shredded Italian provolone cheese

Instructions

1. Cook ground beef in large saucepan over medium-high heat until browned, approximately 5 minutes, stirring to crumble. Drain and set aside.

2. Return pan to heat. Add onion and garlic and saute 5 minutes. Return ground beef to pan.

3. Add 2 tbsp. parsley, crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, herbs, and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 20 minutes more.

4. Combine remaining parsley, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and egg white in a food processor. Process until smooth.

5. Spread 3/4 c. tomato mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 lasagna noodles over tomato mixture. Top with 1/2 cheese mixture and 2-1/4 c. tomato mixture. Sprinkle with 2/3 c. Provolone cheese.

6. Repeat, ending with 4 lasagna noodles. Top with remaining tomato mixture.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover lasagna with foil and bake, covered, for one hour.

8. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining Provolone cheese. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes more.

9. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.