Robyn's Vegetable Lasagna

The best vegetable lasagna ever, from my wonderful friend Robyn. It does take some time, but it's completely worth it. I always make it ahead and freeze it. If I'm making it for a party, I'll make some extra so we have a tray of it that's just for us, later in the month.

I'm going to type this up "Joy of Cooking" style, since that's how I've got it written out here. There's a lot to do in this recipe, but read through first, since many of the things can be done at the same time (roast garlic/boil noodles/sauté mushrooms, for instance), and you just have to decide for yourself how many things you can handle doing at once.

Preheat oven to 400 (unless you're making ahead and freezing).

Boil a package of
lasagna noodles
until not quite done, and leave them in the water so they won't stick together while you're assembling. Alternatively, use those no-bake noodles that I've never tried.

For the tomato sauce, cook together in a saucepan:
pureed tomatoes
a bit of balsamic vinegar
roasted garlic (head of garlic, cut off top, smear with olive oil, wrap in foil, roast in oven at 450 for 40 minutes or until soft)
2 bunches fresh basil leaves
freshly ground pepper
Cook together until thick, approx. 15 minutes.

Shred
about 3/4 cup gruyere cheese
about 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese,
mix them together.

Slice one
eggplant
into rounds. Lay them on a plate and salt them lightly. 20 minutes later, pan fry them. Another option, and this is actually what I usually do, is to just sauté one sliced
zucchini.

Cook
2 10-oz. packages frozen spinach
until done, and drain them well.

Slice thinly
4 yellow onions
and caramelize them: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, and stir them around as best you can, so that they get somewhat coated with the oil. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over the onions, and stir the onions around to distribute the sugar. Cook the onions, stirring very occasionally (every few minutes at most) until they are golden brown, very soft, and smell like heaven. Should take 20-30 minutes.

Slice
1 8-oz pkg button mushrooms
and sauté until soft and most of the water has cooked off.

Also have on hand:
16-oz container of whole milk ricotta.

In a casserole/lasagna pan, arrange ingredients in layers, from bottom to top, thusly:
tomato sauce, just enough to keep noodles from burning to the bottom of the pan
noodles
sauce
cheese (shredded OR ricotta)
spinach
mushrooms
other cheese
onion
eggplant/zucchini
noodles
sauce
continue until all ingredients have been used, ending with noodles, then sauce, then shredded cheese on top.

If you are freezing this, wrap the pan in plastic wrap, and then in foil. Rip off the directions for cooking from the lasagna noodle box...that's what I always follow, but can never remember what it is, so I always tape that portion of the box to the foil on the pan before freezing.

I know this is a lot, but I swear to you that you will be the high reigning royalty of your party if you make this. Vegetarians will be giving you happy hugs (um, not vegans or lactose intolerant folks, though). Everyone will be giving you happy hugs. It's fun to see people casually take a piece, and then see the overjoyed looks on their faces as they taste it. Something about the gruyere, the caramelized onions, and the roasted garlic, as well as, yeah, all the other stuff, just make this a real winner.