Ratatouille-sagna

I am sort of know of as a good cook. I love food. I enjoy a very wide variety of foods and there are very few foods that I don't really enjoy. I love to cook - which I think I have inherited from both my parents, but also give credit to Cutco - from my knife selling days - because I had to show people how my awesome knives cut, I ended up cutting up a whole bunch of food (which is really fun in and of itself - that's another post for another day) and then had to find a creative way to use everything I'd diced and chopped. As a kid, I screwed up the boxed mac and cheese - I hated to cook - but after Cutco - I started to appreciate cooking and, even enjoyed it! And now, I'm even finding great joy in growing food - mostly veggies so far - which I KNOW I also inherited from my mother and father - incredible gardeners! That I also did not enjoy as a child - what I missed out on all these years!

Anyway - enough rambling! I got creative in the kitchen tonight and wanted to share the recipe - try it and tell me what you think. I'm calling it Ratatouille-sagna. (I have been wanting to experiment with recipes that would be pasta like - sans pasta ... gluten free - low carb!)

1 jar of tomato sauce (ragu or the like)
1 can tomato paste
Meat (I used a package of chedder brauts)
fresh mushrooms
2 green onions
Raw Zucchini - about 4-5 medium
1 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup mozzarella
Salt, Pepper (other seasoning if you want - keep it simple - sauce prolly has seasoning already)

Combine the sauce and tomato paste (when the Zucchini cooks - it'll release moisture - so you want your sauce to be pretty dense to start out.) Set aside. I use my handy-dandy Cuisinart Food processor (which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!)...slice the meat, mushrooms and green onions. Sauted for a bout 5 minutes till the meat is warmed (since I was using a pre-cooked braut - if you are using a raw meat - make sure it's throughly cooked - of course!) and the mushrooms are tender. Set aside. slice the zucchini. Set aside. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, salt and pepper. Stir in cottage cheese and all except 2 tbs of the Parmesan.
In casserole dish (I used a oval corning wear dish), pour a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce on the bottom. Layer across the bottom Zucchini, then 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture. Sprinkle generously with mozzarella. A few spoonfuls of meat / mushrooms. Then sauce, Zucchini, cheese, mozzarella, meat, Zucchini, Cheese... etc. I had enough that I could finish the top with zucchini, sauce and a mix of Parmesan and mozzarella.
Baked covered at 400 degrees for 40 min - 10 min uncovered - rest 10 min before serving.
(May want to bake on a cookie sheet - my boiled over a bit)


Yummy with bread - of course!

Would love to hear from you if you get to try it.