Easy Zucchini Lasagna
Delicious, cheesy, and comforting Zucchini Lasagna! This low carb recipe will give you ALL the feels of classic lasagna – but with less guilt by using zucchini noodles. Layers of garlic-y flavor, fresh basil, and so much cheesy goodness. This recipe is soo delicious you won’t even miss using pasta!
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of anything that has to do with pasta, luscious red sauce, and CHEESE. I’m obsessed with Italian food, but I try to keep it in balance because Italian cuisine tends to be higher in carbs.
This week we enjoyed this delicious and savory lasagna made with zucchini noodles. Yes, I said ZUCCHINI. As in, no pasta noodles – just layers of sliced zucchini, fresh basil, rich tomato sauce, and so.much.cheese!
Lower carbs but still all the cozy, cheesy lasagna feels. This recipe is soo delicious and satisfying that you won’t even miss using pasta!
What You Need to Make It
Zucchini: you can also use yellow squash or eggplant slices.
Tomato sauce: we love using my family’s san marzano tomato sauce or Rao’s marinara sauce.
Ricotta: to help prevent less moisture you can strain the ricotta.
Parmesan: using pre-shredded parmesan in lasagna helps lessen the possibility of more moisture.
Mozzarella: use pre-shredded mozzarella if possible to keep the lasagna from building more moisture.
Basil: fresh basil adds so much flavor to any lasagna. This is for layering throughout the lasagna and garnishing on top.
Egg: we love using vital farm pasture-raised eggs.
Garlic: fresh garlic has strong flavor and recommended most. But you can also swap with 1 tsp garlic powder per clove.
How to Make Zucchini Noodles Less Watery
- Salt and dry zucchini. Lay sliced zucchini noodles on paper towels with a little salt over top. Let salt sit for 10 minutes then dry zucchini with paper towels – press down using hands to absorb as much moisture as possible.
- Choose your baking vessel wisely. You want to make sure you bake your zucchini lasagna in a pan/dish that conducts heat well – like a heavy stoneware dish or stainless steel pan.
How to Make Zucchini Lasagna – step by step
- (1) Mix basil, egg, parmesan cheese, pepper, and minced garlic together in a bowl.
- (2-3) After salting and drying zucchini slices start layering your lasagna in a 13×9 baking dish: thin layer of sauce, zucchini noodles, ricotta, mozzarella cheese. Repeat until finished.
- (4) Top lasagna with sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. Bake at 350F for 40 minutes then broil for 1 minute to brown cheese.
How to Reheat
If refrigerated or frozen, the lasagna can be easily reheated.
For refrigerated lasagna: preheat oven to 350F and reheat for around 15 minutes until warm.
For frozen lasagna that is unbaked: let thaw and bake at 350F for 30 to 40 minutes until cheese is browned and bubbling.
Extra Recipe Tips
Slice Vegetables Like a Pro
Mandoline Slicer
I love using this mandoline slicer to get consistent cuts of zucchini for this recipe – it makes my life so much easier! It's a safe and efficient way to slice all types of vegetables. A must-have for your kitchen.
- Use a mandoline slicer for slicing zucchini noodles. If you are experienced with a chef’s knife and feel comfortable, you can slice the zucchini noodles with a knife. Please be very careful doing this step.
- For this recipe you can use your favorite store-bought sauce or my family’s famous San Marzano Tomato Sauce.
- I used just fresh basil in this recipe to make it super simple. You can also add other herbs like oregano and thyme as well.
More Delicious Italian Recipes to Make
- Roasted Eggplant Pasta
- Authentic Italian Chicken Parmesan
- Cheesy Rotini Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
- Baked Eggplant Rollatini
If you tried this Easy Zucchini Lasagna recipe or any other recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, and FACEBOOK for more crave-worthy content.
Easy Zucchini Lasagna
Delicious, cheesy, and comforting Zucchini Lasagna! This low carb recipe will give you ALL the feels of classic lasagna – but with less guilt by using zucchini noodles. Layers of garlic-y flavor, fresh basil, and so much cheesy goodness. This recipe is soo delicious you won’t even miss using pasta!
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
- 3 cups mozzarella, shredded
- 3 cups tomato sauce
Ricotta filling
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 cups Ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cups parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (for dried basil use 2 Tablespoons)
Instructions
See notes for how to slice zucchini noodles.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lay zucchini noodles on paper towels and sprinkle with course sea salt – let sit for 10 minutes so zucchini sweats any access moisture. Use paper towels to press and dry zucchini noodles.
Mix all of ricotta filling ingredients together in bowl.
In a 13×9 baking dish/pan layer lasagna – thin layer of sauce, zucchini noodles, ricotta filling, and mozzarella cheese. Repeat until finished. On top layer with sauce, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.
Bake for 40 minutes uncovered then broil for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese is browned. Sprinkle with chopped fresh basil. Slice and enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? Share your photos and tag @asimplepalate #asimplepalate.
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This was so delicious!! Thank you!
yay! Thank YOU.
This recipe for zucchini lasagne is so yummy…a few notes for the next time I make it is to be sure to use a mandolin to slice the zucchini because some of my slices were a little on thicker side and needed more than 40 minutes to bake. I also would be sure to remove as much moisture from the zucchini’s prior because they do release a lot of moisture into the dish while baking. I also used a blend of Parmesan cheese and mozzarella which worked really well! Definitely would make again! Makes a great side dish if you’re vegetarian based or for your next gathering!
Awww so glad you liked it! And agreed. The sizing of zucchini thickness matters to help moisture release properly. 🙂 Thanks so much for your feedback!
Hi I haven’t made this but I have a question. When you salt the zucchini and leave it for 10 minutes, do you just pat it dry and let the salt stay on the zucchini slices? Wouldn’t that make the dish overly salty?
You’ll only need to sprinkle a little salt over – and yes, by pressing the moisture out you absorb quite a bit of the salt. Results shouldn’t be salty 🙂
Wow! What a surprise. Thank u sooo much! I have never gotten a response before…..I will make this for sure.
Going to make this tonight but going to add eggplant as well. Eating the next day always is the best. I’ll let you all know how it coms out.
Can you make ahead and bake later.
I haven’t ever made it ahead. You can certainly try! I would make sure to absorb as much moisture as possible from the zucchini before prepping it.
Absolutely; flavor and shape is maintained.
Made it tonight! It was so good, I didn’t miss the taste of meat at all.
So happy to hear!
This is so good!! We loved it. The recipe is simple, easy to follow, and a guaranteed hit.
Thank you, Wendy! Super happy to hear you loved it 🙂
Ok I made this for my mother in laws birthday. I did it my way along with the recipe. I used half noodles half zucchini. I made the sauce like was stated adding half hamburger half Italian sausage. It was such a huge huge hit, I have been requested to make it again. Thank you.
I love incorporating some real noodles as well! So happy it worked out 🙂
Well I don’t have any eggs at the moment. is there anything I could sub?
The egg is just the binder, feel free to try it without it! 🙂 The ricotta may be a little harder to spread but it shouldn’t make a huge difference.
So sorry to hear that, Virginia! Sometimes they can have extra moisture.
I made this last night. It came out really watery. I took as much moisture out of the zucchini as I could get. However, the flavor was great! I will make it and try draining the ricotta to see if that helps as far as it being watery…Thanks so much for the recipe!
Great idea with draining the ricotta! I will have to try that as well 🙂 Thanks sue!
This was the worst! Threw the whole thing out.
I’m so sorry to hear that. Would love to hear what went wrong so I can maybe help!
I am making this for the third time tonight. I follow the recipe exactly and add ground turkey. It turns out amazing and everyone loves it. Thanks for a great recipe!
This was delicious! I added ground turkey to the sauce.