A good friend of mine said she was making lasagna for her daughter and son-in-law since they had just had a new baby and she was trying to help them. That gave me the idea to send out these recipes, because pasta is always a good dinner meal, and when you add a salad, you have a very filling dinner.

My Favorite Lasagna

4 servings

This is the recipe I created when lasagna noodles came to Israel for the first time in the 1970s.

Sauce

• 2 T. oil
• ¼ cup chopped onions
• 1-2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 T. sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• ¾ t. basil
• 1 T. chopped parsley
• 2 cups crushed tomatoes
• ¼ cup water
• ⅜ cup tomato paste
• water
• salt
• 6 large noodles

Filling

• 2 ¼ cups Ricotta or dry cottage cheese
• 1 egg
• salt to taste
• 1 T. chopped parsley
• 1 ⅞ cups French cheese
• ⅜ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a rectangular baking dish.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and garlic and sauté. Add sugar, salt, pepper, parsley, tomatoes, water and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. In another pot, bring water and salt to boil. Add noodles, cook for 8 minutes, drain and  rinse.

4. In a bowl, combine Ricotta or cottage cheese, egg, salt, parsley and cheeses.

5. In the baking dish, add ⅓ of the sauce, ⅓ lasagna, ⅓ filling. Repeat two more times.

6. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove the cover and bake 25 minutes more.

Fast Vegetarian Lasagna

4-6 servings

This recipe is from Food & Wine magazine.

• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 chopped carrots
• 2 chopped red peppers
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 3 cups marinara sauce
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup cream cheese
• 1 t. Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste
• 16 lasagna noodles
• 2 ounces grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 415 degrees F. Grease a rectangular  baking dish.

2. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add carrots, peppers and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in marinara sauce and water.

3. In a bowl, whisk together ricotta, egg, cream cheese, mustard, salt and pepper.

4. Spread ⅔ cup marinara sauce in baking dish, Top with 8 noodles, overlapping them a little. Cover with half the ricotta. Arrange the rest of the noodles on top and cover with remaining marinara sauce and ricotta. Top with Parmigiano-Reggiano and cover with foil.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes before serving. 

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of nine kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem, where she has led weekly walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers from 2014 to 2020.