The 2 Roasted Vegetables Ina Garten Adds To Lasagna (And You Should, Too)

The best thing about a delicious layered baked pasta dish is its versatility. There's no shortage of creative lasagna recipes you'll keep coming back to because there are always fun new ways to switch up your pasta, sauces, cheese, and other ingredients. Whether you go with a classic lasagna bolognese recipe to keep things traditional or get experimental with a fully vegan lasagna recipe, there are lots of directions to go from meat to veggies and everything in between. The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, always has delightful recipes and tips to share and this is absolutely true for her go-to lasagna ingredients. For a robust dish filled with wholesome vegetable flavors, Garten's two major roasted vegetable lasagna ingredients are eggplant and zucchini.

With the flavors of a classic ratatouille recipe, including roasted eggplant and zucchini in a lasagna is a pretty perfect addition. Whether you're making an entirely vegetarian lasagna like the Roasted Vegetable Lasagna recipe on the Barefoot Contessa website, or adding more vegetable nutrients into the mix alongside your favorite ground sausages or beef, this is a great way to bring more flavor and complexity to your meal. Roasting the vegetable ingredients before assembling your lasagna is key to getting the proper caramelization and depth of flavor. From there, it's really a matter of making a homemade lasagna to suit your personal taste preferences.

Whether it's slices, pieces, or even roasting a whole eggplant, this method is relatively commonplace, especially for recipes like baba ganoush and more. Adding slices or chunks of roasted eggplant to a lasagna does wonders to elevate the taste. And, if you haven't tried it yet, roasting a zucchini will take it to a new level, making it another perfect ingredient for your lasagna. If you take one extra step to sear your zucchini before roasting it, the flavor will amplify even more. Determining how you want to combine your roasted vegetable ingredients is a welcome challenge that you can keep changing every time you make the dish.

For example, adding roasted zucchini and eggplant to a spaghetti squash lasagna recipe is practically a no-brainer for even more rich vegetable goodness. Similarly, in a hidden vegetable ravioli lasagna recipe, there's already zucchini, so why not roast it and throw in some roasted eggplant too? Even in a shortcut chicken and spinach lasagna recipe, there's room for roasted veggies. When it comes to these key ingredients in a lasagna, the rule should be the more, the merrier.