Summer Lasagna

So, I really want to give this recipe rave reviews.  I do.  And it was absolutely delicious.  I mean...it's literally all I can do right now to not go get a second helping because it was THAT good.  But there were some issues in the presentation, and I have to address those.

Summer Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 cup ricotta
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 8 lasagne noodles, broken into thirds, cooked and drained
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup torn basil leaves

Directions

1. Cook noodles according to the package.
2. Combine ricotta, Parmesan, and olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Refridgerate.
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high and add garlic and tomatoes.  Cook until slightly broken down, about 3 minutes.  Transfer to bowl.
4. Add zucchini to skillet (with more oil if needed).  Season with salt & pepper to taste; cook until tender.  Transfer to (yet another) bowl.
5. Scatter a few tomatoes over four plates.  Top with one noodle, a spoonful of ricotta mixture, zucchini and more tomatoes.  Repeat layering twice, ending with noodle & then tomatoes.  Drizzle a little more olive oil on top.  Garnish with basil and serve.

My Changes

• This really was an amazing delicious combination of flavors.  However, it was awkward to put together.  It didn't stay layered because everything was so slippery with the olive oil.  Not a huge deal, but it was especially weird once I realized that it was supposed to be presented plate by plate.  There's only 2 of us here and leftovers are basically guaranteed.  So when I went to put the rest up, I was confused on how to do it.  I ended up just putting all of the tomatoes in a dish, then noodles, then the ricotta mixture, then the zucchini.  I'll try to update after my husband comes home & gets his share of it to let you know how that worked.
• I used only 24 oz of tomatoes (I know, LESS than the recipe called, it's a miracle).  I'm sorry, cherry tomatoes are kind of expensive :-/ Anyway, it worked.  But I may have just added a lot of them to my individual portion...
• I didn't have fresh basil, but I decided to use dried in the ricotta cheese mixture and it worked perfectly.
• Here's what I really think would work best to make this recipe as practical as it is delicious- change out the "lasagna" for shells.  Put the ricotta mixture in shells, and then serve the tomatoes & zucchini mixed on the sides.  It would be easier to maneuver, store, and serve while still keeping the integrity of the dish.