This fresh and easy summer lasagna requires sweet summer veggies and exactly NO baking in a hot oven! The perfect summer supper.
This recipe for summer lasagna makes me happy in so many ways. First of all, it is one of those recipes that looks like you slaved over it for hours when really you messed around in the kitchen for about 20 minutes.
Second, it takes full advantage of the fresh and wonderful summer veggies that are starting to trickle in — young fresh basil, sweet cherry tomatoes, and zucchini.
This fresh and easy summer lasagna requires sweet summer veggies and exactly NO baking in a hot oven! The perfect summer supper.Third, it is yet another recipe that calls for fresh ricotta, thereby helping me satisfy my new obsession with making my own ricotta (and as always, you feel free to buy your ricotta at the supermarket, the way well-adjusted people do.)
Fourth, the reason it is called “Summer Lasagna” is because you don’t bake it. Nope, no oven required.
Last but not least, it was SO photogenic. Like this baby I know, it looked good in every single shot.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Both scrumptious, right??
Here’s the recipe. For the lasagna, I mean…not the baby.
Summer Lasagna
Yield: 4 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This fresh and easy summer lasagna requires sweet summer veggies and exactly NO baking in a hot oven! The perfect summer supper.
Ingredients
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
- 8 lasagna noodles, broken into thirds, cooked and drained
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup torn basil leaves
Instructions
- Combine ricotta, parmesan and 1 tablespoon olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Heat remaining oil in skillet over medium high and add tomatoes. Cook until slightly broken down, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
- Add zucchini to skillet (with a little more oil if needed). Season with salt and pepper and cook about 5 minutes until tender. Transfer to another bowl.
- Scatter a few tomatoes over four plates. Top with one noodle, a spoonful of ricotta mixture, zucchini and more tomatoes. Repeat layering twice, ending with noodle and tomatoes. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top.
- Garnish with basil and serve.
Hi there! I’m Kate, and I’m a recipe writer, food photographer and devoted bacon lover. I started Framed Cooks in 2009, and my mission is to create and share family-friendly recipes that make cooking both easy and fun…yes, I said FUN! My kitchen is my happy place, and I want yours to be that place too. Let’s cook together!
Take one happy baby, throw him/her in the air, catch.
Repeat.
Garnish with kisses.
Enjoy.
The lasagna looks good too :)
Hmmm I don't know what I want to eat more…the baby or the lasagna. You are making this tough :P
I can't believe my luck in stumbling across your site! I found it while searching for a pastina recipe after reading flipping through the book about losing love and making spaghetti at the grocery store. I then saw this recipe while I was reading waiting in line to checkout! But the funniest part is scanning through your recipes and seeing one for Cincinnati
chili. I've only seen it one other time on a blog friend's site. You might enjoy her cute blog and good recipes. Right now she's posting on their move from the south to the southwest.
http://love2cooksweets.blogspot.com/
At any rate, I like the way you take pictures and write up what you're cooking. Great blog!
I saw this recipe in Everyday Food and while it looked good there, I don't think it can compete with your gorgeous photos!
looks SO yummy, can't wait to try it out on a hot summers day. your images are great as well, thank you for posting!
No baking! Yes! I just moved into an apartment without an oven, so I'll be needing this one.
gorgeous photos, great recipes. I'm going to try two of the fresh corn ones this summer
This looks wonderful! light and delicious – totally perfect for summertime. Can't wait to give it a try! Great pictures by the way :)
That looks absolutely amazing! Cannot wait to try it out :) Perfect for summer!
You're completely right. These photos are amazing. It's nice to finally see a good summer lasagne recipes. Usually I'm stuck making
Lasagna. Basically I'm just really excited to to try this soon! Thanks so much for sharing! I'm bookmarking your site!
~Sophia
I saw this on Steamy Kitchen and followed the link. I think this is a wonderful dish. I also liked your blue cheese tomato Napolean. Well, I guess I just like your style. You've got a new reader. :)
Just wanted to confirm that this recipe WAS delicious and simple to create. My boyfriend and I enjoyed the summer lasagna as the first meal in our new house. Thanks again!
Made this tonight with my boyfriend and we loved it; we added fresh herbs (parsley, sage, and oregano) into the ricotta mix. Will definitely make this again this summer. Can't wait to check out your other recipes :)
This was a terrific recipe. My tomatoes came up much saucy-er and man, was it good. Highly recommend. I agree with the above poster that said your pictures are better than the magazine. Great shots!
I stumbled upon your recipe on Jaden Hair's Steamy Kitchen blog and I'll be making it this weekend. I've bought all the ingredients except one, the tomatoes. The recipe calls for cherry tomatoes but in your picture (amazing plating and photography skills) the tomatoes look like grape tomatoes. Which one should I use?
You can use either one. Cherry tomatoes (at least the ones I usually get) are little smaller and more fragile than the grapes (which I DID use, good eye!) so you might want to cook them a teeny bit less, depending on how firm you want your tomato in this dish. As you can see from the picture, my grape tomatoes only broke down a little during cooking. But either one will work just fine — I tend to grab whichever variety looks best at that particular moment in the supermarket!
I am going to make this tonight…can't wait! I've had it bookmarked since seeing it featured on TLC.
I made this last night and it was great!!! I added some finely chopped spinach to the ricotta for some color and the a slice of fresh mozzarella on the top layer. Delicious!
This was delicious! I always crave lasagna in the summer but don't want to heat up the house. Thank you for showing us a summer alternative.
I even made the ricotta and really surprised myself. So simple! And so much better than store-bought.
I posted my photos on my blog…but I like yours much better. Yours really captures the freshness. (I included a link to this post, of course.)
Thank you!
Looks good, but it is not my kind of food, Im young, so I still can afford the steaks, the pork shops, the ribs, all the grease foods.
Hello, i think that this post is very good, i would like to read more about it
Just wanted to write and say that I made this dish over the long weekend for my family and they ADORED it. My mom couldn't stop raving about how easy making the fresh ricotta was, and how she would never buy store-bought again. I just recently stumbled onto your blog and will most definitely be coming back for more your wonderful recipes and fabulous wit and humor :) Thanks!
Anna
Washington, DC
4 out of 5 in my house loved this. Most recipes have a hard time passing 3 out of 5, we all have such different tastes and my youngest says it is even good enough for company. Will definitely be making this again. Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe!
4 out of 5 – I’ll take it! Glad it was such a hit at your house. :)
Thank you thank you thank you…. i was looking for the perfect summer dinner party dish! Both impressive and delicious!
Hurray! Hope it’s a great party!
thank you thank you thank you!!! I was looking for the perfect summer dinner party dish . Both impressive and delicious!
Yes! Yes! YES! Gorgeous photos as always, Kate! This looks beautiful!
Aw, thanks! This is going on my menu (again) next week…I can’t stop making it in the summer! :)
Anyway, I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective interesting content. Make sure you update this again soon.