Apr 25th, 2009
Lasagna Rio Grande
When having friends over for a hearty meal, it’s hard to beat lasagna, and Rebar’s Lasagna Rio Grande takes it in a new direction. Smoky, cheesy, and a little bit spicy, this dish is probably my favourite lasagna recipe of all time.
The layers of this lasagna consist of cheese, cilantro pesto, smoky tomato sauce, roasted vegetables, and noodles. The cilantro pesto, which tested our blender (2 whole bunches of cilantro! Be sure to remove the stems, or you’ll end up with a stringy mess.) but tasted great, was both fresher and less oily than regular pesto and would make a great topping for other pasta dishes. The smoky tomato sauce, with red chile flakes, chili powder, and chipotle puree (a go-to Rebar ingredient) was simple to prepare, and would also make a great standalone pasta topping.
The vegetable layers were hearty, with several roasted red peppers, a few pounds of zucchini, and a couple bunches of chard. We added a bit of spinach to this, and ended up reserving some of the zucchini – it was the only way we could fit the lasagna into our pan! There is a lot of cheese in this recipe as well (something we didn’t hold back on), but it only works out to about a half-cup per serving. Not quite diet food, but really not bad for a lasagna.
There’s a fair amount of work in this recipe, but a lot can be done in advance. We prepared the cilantro pesto filling the night before. Everything else we made just before assembly, but in the future we’ll likely make the tomato sauce and roasted veggies a day ahead as well. There’s also a lot of room for variation here – adding more or less heat by experimenting with chiles, substituting different types of cheese, or throwing in an unexpected vegetable (squash would be great!) are all ways to make this recipe your own.
We served this lasagna with Rebar’s Southwest Caesar Salad, which will be covered in an upcoming Cook the Book post.
