Farmer's Market Vegetable Lasagna

This weekend I went to the Farmer's Market in Gilbert. It was beautiful! It's no exaggeration that I get more excited about a haul from the Farmer's Market than I do about a shoe or purse shopping spree. It's my idea of a perfect morning-- all the fresh produce, local honey that tastes nothing like the honey from the grocery store, delicious food trucks, cute dogs walking around, gorgeous organic eggs, gargantuan garlic cloves (as big as my hand!!), vibrant varieties of veggies...and the TOMATOES. Oh my, the tomatoes. I met a woman whose farm stand sold exclusively tomatoes of all kinds. She persuaded me to spend most of my budget at her stand because she kept giving me samples of the super sweet, almost black in color plum tomatoes and bright orange, yellow, and red cherry tomatoes. They were honestly better than candy!

Since I bought so many scrumptious fresh vegetables, I decided to make a "lasagna". It definitely wasn't a traditional lasagna because I used turkey sausage, pepperjack cheese on top, and cottage cheese inside...so it was more of like a veggie inspired casserole. It turned out amazing!! Both Scott and I had to restrain ourselves from devouring the entire pan. It's pretty healthy, though, so no guilt if you decide to go in for seconds.

Ingredients

Olive oil
Salt & pepper
1 onion, sliced
6 large cloves garlic, diced
8 medium to large tomatoes, any variety, chopped
1 medium eggplant, sliced into planks
1 zucchini, sliced
1/2 garden cucumber, sliced
1 package oven-ready lasagna
Cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1 lb turkey sausage, browned
2 cups tomato sauce, store bought or homemade (my recipe for homemade is below)
Crumbled pepperjack cheese (or any cheese you prefer. Go ahead, break the rules!)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
In a casserole dish, start with a bit of olive oil. Layer noodles, cottage cheese, tomato sauce, vegetables, in that order, three times. Season each layer with salt and pepper. Top with an extra layer of noodles, sauce, and lots of pepperjack cheese. Bake for 30 minutes covered with foil, then an additional 15 minutes uncovered.
Let your casserole rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Tomato sauce ingredients
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 dried bay leaves
A dash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
1 box chicken stock

Stew all the above ingredients together over medium heat in a saucepan for a minimum of one hour. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes. I let mine go for six hours, adding water whenever it looked like it was getting too thick. This is also a great sauce for pizza and pasta! ENJOY!