Sorry guys about being MIA since last week.  Moving, moving, moving. Life has been in a bit of flux as we changed home and office last week. Boxes. Papers. Stacks of things to be sorted, donated, and sold. A huge lightening of the load. In the midst of all this change, I downsized our kitchen since we moved to a much smaller interim apartment for the next six months (try the size of our old, and future, living room). It’s worth it since we come back to the same building to our dream home in March.

What’s a cook with to do? Prioritize. Much of my time was strategically thinking through all my kitchen necessities. Although I am pumping out creations in an itsy-bitsy galley kitchen, that doesn’t mean my faithful Kitchen Aid, convection oven, appliances, and full spice, Vinegar, and oil Collection, and other favorites didn’t make the cut. The 120+ bottles of wine have found a dark, cool resting place in one of the closets before they move back to their new A/C-driven cellar.

Nights were full of tedious packing, but instead of reaching for the phone for pizza relief, one thing that kept Francisco and I really anchored was homey food. I sensed this may be the case in early June and in a blitz of cooking one weekend, prepared food to be frozen for moving week: spinach gnocchi, lentil soup, pumpkin-cranberry bean-chard stew, and a whole chicken to be defrosted and roasted later. With the upheaval, which was mental and physical, having some connection to “real” food was absolutely key. It made me feel at home, even though my surroundings suggested otherwise.

This weekend, I rotated the remaining vegetables and cheeses in the frig in a very inspired, albeit impromptu, vegetarian lasagna. If cooking for me usually is a divine connection in that I find using my hands very meditative, this break helped me center and brought some calm amidst the chaos. The lasagna is sans pasta. I thought it was totally unnecessary. The flavors were absolutely divine, in addition to being light, flavorful, and totally healthy and low in fat. The base recipe I created out of my head (as I cooked) is below, although tweak it with whatever may be lurking in your vegetable drawer and tune it to your own taste buds.

4 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch (I used a mandoline)

3 medium eggplants, sliced in thick rounds

4 large red or yellow bell Peppers, halved and deseeded

6-8 carrots, peeled and grated

1 cup finely chopped button mushrooms

1 bunch green onions, finely chopped

1 pound ground turkey

1 can tomato juice

1 can diced plum tomatoes with their juice

1 lb. Ricotta cheese, drained

½ cup parmesan

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg, beaten

1 cup grated low-fat jack cheese

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Fresh thyme leaves

Sea salt/fresh black pepper to taste

Pinch of Merkén, or crushed pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 180F.

1. On a tray, place the eggplant rounds and brush with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for about 20 minutes until tender. Remove from oven and reserve.
2. Rub the peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan. Roast for about 25-30 minutes until skins are slightly blistered. Be careful not to burn them. Remove from the oven and place in paper bag to cool to loosen skins. Peel, slice lengthwise, and reserve.
3. In a fry pan, brush a little olive oil over the surface. Salt the zucchini lightly. Sear the sliced zucchini on both sides, about 3 minutes each side. Repeat until all zucchini have been seared. Reserve. This will be your pasta “substitute”.
4. In another large sauce pan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil. Add the green onions and cook for 5-7 minutes. Incorporate the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the ground turkey and cook through, breaking up the big chunks into little bits. Add the tomatoes and tomato juice, salt, pepper, and pinch of merkén and mix well. Turn heat down to medium low and slowly simmer for about 30 minutes until much of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated.
5. Toss the grated carrots with a sprinkling of salt.
6. In a bowl, combine the ricotta with the egg, nutmeg, 2 tablespoons of Parmesan, thyme leaves, and salt and pepper. Reserve.
7. Now to put it all together!! In a large lasagna pan, cover the greased bottom with a layer of zucchini. Spoon the turkey sauce over the zucchini evenly. Next arrange a layer of roasted eggplant. Following this, spread a layer of ricotta (I used my hands since the spatula was just not happening). Cover with grated carrots and decorate with the slices of roasted pepper. Repeat two more times. For the top layer, save a little extra sauce and sprinkle generously with all the Jack and Parmesan cheeses.
8. Back for 30 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving as it is steaming hot (and hard to cut).

Yield: 6 portions.

Note: This made delicious leftovers—and paired well with a simple Northern Rhone blend.