Deconstructed Greek Lasagna-- September/October 2010

So. It is well established that I am very lazy. (See the fact that I'm posting my OCTOBER entry in the first week of November. Ahem.) When presented with the challenge of making lasagna, a notorious time-suck of a dish, I heaved an internal sigh. All that LAYERING. All the dirty pots. Yuck. And then, factor in the baking time. I half-heartedly searched lasagna recipes on the trusty ol' internet, looking for something to strike me, when I came across this on the Good Housekeeping website. I believe I actually shouted, "AHA!" THIS is lasagna for the lazy at heart. No layering! No baking! They called it Greek lasagna toss, but I tweaked the spices, so I have reserved to right to re-name it. It's now Deconstructed Greek Lasagna. VICTORY IS MINE! Check it out...


You will need the following:
Lasagna noodles
2T olive oil
One onion, diced
Two cloves of garlic, diced
1 24oz can of plum tomatoes
Fresh oregano and rosemary-- a few stems of each
1T crushed red pepper
Salt to taste
2lb shrimp-- tails off
1/2 C feta cheese, with more for sprinkling
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish


Start a pot of water boiling for your lasagna noodles, and in a separate large skillet, heat the olive oil and add chopped onion.



Allow the onions and the chopped garlic to cook 'til opaque, then add plum tomatoes, and break them up with the back of a spoon. (Or the weird wooden paddle-y thing I prefer to use these days.)



Mmmm. Things are starting to smell good. Around this time, the water you started for the lasagna noodles should be boiling, so go ahead and put the noodles in the water. Add the chopped fresh herbs and the crushed red pepper to the tomato mixture, and let it simmer for a few minutes.



See the steamy goodness? It's about to get better. It's time to introduce the shrimp. I had frozen shrimp, so I defrosted it under some warm running water for a few minutes, and let it defrost the rest of the way in the sauce itself. Then, I tossed in the feta cheese.



I stirred it allll up, and about this time the lasagna noodles were done. I drained them, and then added the tomato shrimp goodness to the hot noodles, and tossed the parsley on top-- it was a thing of beauty.



Yummmmmm. A side note-- please, please, PLEASE-- if you decide to make this stuff-- make this bread to go with it.



Isn't it ADORABLE? It was absolutely delicious, and SUPER SIMPLE. Here's the link-- seriously, make this.

Anyway. Back to dinner. I KNEW the 4yo would immediately reject anything involving shrimp and/or feta cheese, so I just gave her leftovers. But, she loved the bread. (She said to Melissa, "You MUST try this bread! It's GOOOOD!") And she wanted me to take her picture. Here's your dose of cute.


She gives the leftovers a big thumbs up. Next, we had a special guest for dinner-- cousin Melissa! Wooooo! She, too, enjoyed her dinner:



Jay, too, found the meal to be delicious. He said it was "perfectly spiced". That's me, tooting my horn. Toot.



I was really happy with it, too. It took a whole 25 MINUTES to prepare, and it was delicious. I would serve it to anyone. If the queen were coming for dinner, and didn't have a shellfish allergy, she would eat this happily.