Green and White Lasagna

I will not lie, I thought this effort was going to crash and burn. Basically, the CSA has put me in clean out the fridge mode in terms of cooking. I not only try to cook with what I have, but I also avoid buying things that I don't. The inspiration for this endeavor came from a beet green and white bean ravioli that I used to make in college. Our CSA then was beet and kale central, even in the peak of summer. It was not a very satisfying CSA to be a part of. Anyways, I had a bunch of beet greens and wanted to make a similar recipe with less work. My parsley pasta attempt was sub par, so for a more structured lasagna, I would stick with straight pasta. I also made my own ricotta for this "lasagna," which turned out more like a casserole. Anyways, the smells coming out of my oven were superb, and the taste definitely matched. None of these measurements are exact, since I was cooking this for myself and experimenting. I'm sharing this anyways because it used up a lot of my veggies and turned out to be quite delicious despite my initial fears.

Green and White Lasagna

butter/olive oil
about 1/3 cup flour
about 3 cups milk
parmesan (I used the cheap stuff)
salt and pepper
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 Tb olive oil
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bunch beet greens/swiss chard/kale
salt and pepper
about 2 cups ricotta cheese
2 zucchini, sliced
1 head cauliflower, chopped into small bits

1. Melt butter or heat olive oil in pan. Add flour and stir to make a golden roux. When you are sick of stirring your roux, add milk and stir until thickened. Once thickened, add parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste. Shut off the heat. This is the white sauce that you will use instead of a traditional tomato based sauce.

2. This step is only necessary if you are making your own pasta. Otherwise, cook your lasagna noodles and skip this. First, mix whole wheat flour, egg, and 2 Tbs olive oil. This should make a firm dough. Knead until it forms a ball. If you need to, you can add a little water. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll into sheets on pasta machine. Rolling pasta by hand sucks. I suggest you don't do it.

3. Heat olive oil in a pan. Saute chopped onion until translucent. Add stems of greens and saute until they start to soften a little. Add the greens themselves and saute until wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Take your sauteed greens and run them through a food processor. Mix this with the ricotta. You could also add garlic and leftover pesto or herbs.

4. Spread some sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Put down a layer of noodles. Cover with a layer of zucchini slices. Cover with ricotta/greens mixture. Repeat.

5. When you've used all of your noodles and ricotta/greens mixture, you should have some white sauce and zucchini left. Chop the zucchini into small cubes and mix with the cauliflower and remaining sauce. I added more salt and pepper to this mixture. Use this to cover the lasagna. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour.