198
Submitted by Marg (CaymanDesigns)
"Great for anyone going low carb OR who has so many zucchini, they don't know what to do!! :) We found the sauce to be very mild. I think it would be better with twice as much garlic. I boiled my zucchini slices for about 3 minutes so they were partially cooked. I wanted to make sure they were soft in the finished dish or I knew the kids wouldn't eat them. ;) The cottage cheese provides a slightly tangy note. I think we would have preferred ricotta, but that is personal taste. I use my 11x7 baking dish and got 6 pieces the size of what you see in my photos. Both of the guys ate two so it fed 4 of us, and I double the meat. Adjust the recipe accordingly for your family."
photo by Ashley Cuoco 
- Ready In:
- 1hr
- Ingredients:
- 15
- Serves:
-
4
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ingredients
- 2 1⁄2 cups zucchini, sliced lengthwise 1/4 inch thick (about 2 medium)
- 1⁄2 lb lean ground beef (I use 1 lb.)
- 1⁄4 cup onion, chopped
- 2 small tomatoes, cut up
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1⁄4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1⁄4 cup water
- 1⁄8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 egg
- 3⁄4 cup low fat cottage cheese (or low fat or fat free ricotta)
- 1⁄2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (I use 8 oz. divided)
- 1 teaspoon flour
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directions
- Cook zucchini until tender, drain and set aside. Fry meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add next 8 ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups.
- In small bowl slightly beat egg.
- Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.
- In (1 1/2-qt.) baking-roasting pan arrange half of the meat mixture. Top with half of the zucchini and all the cottage cheese mixture. Top with remaining meat and zucchini.
- Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer.
- Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Questions & Replies
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Why do you add flour and an egg? What so they do for the recipe? I have more zucchini squash than we can eat, our garden is growing out of site with zucchini! I have to give so much away.
Sheila D.
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I need to make this today for Saturday party, and 1 for Sunday party if the 1st turns out ...Will it get watery if I cook it ahead of time?
Chris M.
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Reviews
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Awesome base recipe, but made for tweeking. I doubled the beef, a must! I also doubled the seasoning and garlic. I used about 3 medium zucchini, (on top of sauce) sliced about 1/4" thick to line my baking dish boiled them a little so they would cook faster, seasoned with S&P. I did the cheese like in the recipe but it was really not enough compaired to all the meat in the sauce so I doubled that but I used ricotta cheese and seasoned that too. I added a layer of fresh basil leaves on the cheese. Layered the sauce and zucchini but on top of the last layer I added fresh mozzarella cheese. Let me tell you I could have eaten the whole tray. Will double to a 9x13 next time, definetly!! THANK YOU!! Just started a low carb way of eating and couldn't come up with anything. Now I have this.
tmp68
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Great reciepe!!! I ended up going with the no boil lasagna noodles (which I highly reccommend) instead of the zucchini slices. However I did use the zucchini. I grated 3 zucchini and mixed it in with the tomatoes and seasonings. I did add extra garlic and I did double the meat. After that I went accordingly to recipe. My family and I loved it! The kids (ages 7 and 4) did not notice that there was veggies in it! Wahoo! :) Score!
Cheryl's Home Cookin'
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This is so good! We definitely did not miss the pasta! I used 1 lbs of ground beef, double the spices, and added salt. Before the salt the meat was pretty bland. I used ricotta because it had slightly less carbs than the cottage cheese I looked at. Also, I used a colby-jack blend because I'm not a huge mozzerella. This is definitely a keeper!! I am going to post it on my facebook right now :)
Shelly J.
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Nice easy quick way to get a lasagna like dish. Only caveat as an Italian American I say USE ricotta please..it give any lasagna dish authenticity, better flavor and texture. Fresh basil adds more flavor too.
Mary S.
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This is more than delicious!! I doubled the meat, used all ricotta cheese, shredded fresh mozarella, and a few more zucchini than listed. I also took a small portion and cooked it without the meat for myself(I cooked everything according to the recipe but just left out the meat). My husband and two year old loved the meat version and I loved the vegeterian version. Absolutely yummy! I will definately make this again!! Thanks!
Oliver Fischers Mo
see 185 more reviews
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Tweaks
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I boiled the zucchini. Loved the fast of the meat did not think it was going to be that good. However, I did add double the garlic and some salt to it and added ricotta as it's my favorite for lasagna. It's my first time cooking with zucchini and I hope at the gathering I am taking it to it is a good hit. Let's see. Fingers crossed.
Quinn P.
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I feel great about feeding this to my family and even my veggie hating, picky child liked it! We did modify the recipe by using venison instead of beef. We didn't add any other spices but did use more of the spices the recipe called for. After putting it in the baking dish, we decided ours needed more veggies to complete the second layer so we were able to use some pre-steamed leftover veggies from a frozen mix we buy including yellow and orange carrots, and red bell pepper. We sauteed fresh green bell pepper along with the meat, onion, and other ingredients. I can definitely see us making this again.
Gina F.
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Great starter recipe! I made a few small changes though. Substitutions:I used an additional zucchini.I doubled the meat, garlic, and seasonings (I used Italian seasoning instead of the separate ones).I used 1 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb of each Italian sausage and maple sausage.I used an extra can of tomato paste for the consistency I was looking for. I used a block of cream cheese instead because I didn't have any ricotta or cottage cheese on hand, and it was so amazing. My husband preferred it to the cottage cheese/ricotta. Next time I'll add sautéed mushrooms too.
kirsty.bourne
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This was a wonderful basic recipe that allowed me to make changes. Instead of ground beef, I used ground chicken. I did not have enough ricotta cheese and I did not want to buy more (I kind of felt like it would be too much cheese since I was using shredded cheddar and shredded Mexican blend cheeses.) I used a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes which was seasoned with garlic/oregano/basil, and a garlic/basil/oregano spaghetti sauce instead of the listed spices as those two items had all the spices needed for a tasty dish. As well, I layered the bottom of the pan with zucchini and then proceeded to do the layering. This was a very easy dish to make and so so delicious. You can't go wrong!
KarenAlice
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I'm making this tonight. I changed it up a bit, I used sea salt and ground fresh pepper on the zucchini as I layered it, used veggie crumbles (Morning Star) to replace the meat, roasted garlic tomato paste, 1tsp fennel, use ricotta cheese, and diced up baby portabella mushrooms (cooked with crumbles and after the last zucchini layer, before shredded cheese).
Ramona J.
see 27 more tweaks
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Marg (CaymanDesigns)
United States
- 368 Followers
- 444 Recipes
- 52 Tweaks
With the changes to the email notifications and removal of private messaging, I am no longer able to respond to questions about my recipes. Yet another feature change that has made the website less user friendly. It's sad to watch a fantastic site deteriorate over the years. Some of my recipes are on my blog.
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