Turkey Lasagna

We’ve made quite a few lasagna dishes here at Ali Does It.  Some of them have been pretty fancy, while others were more simple.  Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the best, as you know.  But sometimes a teensy tweak of those simplest things makes them even better.  This particular lasagna dish is pretty classic, as things go, but I used ground turkey instead of beef for a bit of a lighter meal, and then added eggplant to the mix because I remembered the richness of it in the lasagna I made with béchamel.

This recipe makes enough for two small (7″ x 10″) dishes, and freezes really well.

Dice up an onion or two and sauté the pieces with a bit of olive oil and some minced garlic in a large saucepan until tender and translucent, a few minutes.

Chuck in a package of ground turkey, and stir it around until it’s all broken up and the pieces are no longer pink.

Chop up a medium-sized eggplant, two red peppers, and a handful of mushrooms and add those to the mix.

Add in two cans tomato sauce and simmer that for a few minutes.  If you’re planning to cook this right away, then keep it warm, but if you’re planning to freeze the lasagna then feel free to let it cool.

In a bowl, mix together two tubs ricotta cheese with two cups chopped spinach (fresh or frozen, your choice).

Now you can put it all together.  Start with your oven-ready lasagna noodles.  Stick them raw into your dish to line the bottom. Scoop on a generous amount of your tomato/turkey sauce and smooth it down.

Add another layer of noodles, then a heap (half, if you’re making two lasagnas) of ricotta mixture.  Smooth that down.

More noodles, and you’re probably reaching the top of your container right about now.  Scoop on a final layer of tomato/turkey sauce and then sprinkle the top with a generous layer of grated mozzarella cheese.

Let the dish cool completely before freezing, or pop it in the oven right away.

You can bake this, uncovered, from frozen at 400°F for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.

Here are some of the other Ali Does It lasagna dishes for your review:

Beef Lasagna with Eggplant and Béchamel

Egg Won Ton Lasagna

Roasted Vegetable and Tofu Lasagna

Freeze-Ahead Feature: Tips on Freezing Prepared Dishes

Both sets of our parents are coming east this summer to take care of Gren while the Pie and I are gallivanting on the west coast.  Actually, by the time you read this, my parents will already have arrived.  To make their stay a little easier, I’m trying my best to get as many meals made ahead of time as possible.  I’m also trying to get as many posts stockpiled in advance as possible, so for the next little while, most of the dishes you will see here will be ones that you can freeze and haul out later on in the summer when you’ve got too much on the go.  Note that you don’t HAVE to freeze anything if you don’t want to — these dishes are just very freezer-friendly.

As a preface to this extended feature, I want to let you in on a neat technique for freezing prepared dishes when you don’t have a lot of spare casserole dishes or oven-safe storage containers lying around.

Line your dish with aluminum foil before you fill it with whatever goodness you’ve got going on.  Make sure the foil is long enough to fold over on all sides.  You may need to use a few pieces.

Once filled, cover and freeze the dish as you normally would.

While that’s freezing, pull out another sheet of foil and use a permanent marker to write (on the foil) the name of the dish, the date you froze it, and any necessary cooking instructions.

When the dish is frozen, tip your food to remove it from the dish (so you can use the dish again).

Use your foil instruction sheet to wrap the frozen food in an extra layer of foil.  Follow that up with a layer of plastic wrap as well, for insurance purposes, if you’re feeling iffy about your wrapping job.

When you are ready to eat the food, just remove the extra wrap and the instructions and place the frozen food back in the dish in which you made it and you’re all ready to go!