Garden Lasagne

For the sauce

Wash and dice cauliflower and zucchini and set aside in a large bowl.

Carefully chop celery, bell pepper, and carrots separately in work bowl of a food processor equipped with a steel blade (the vegetables should be roughly the same size as the zucchini and cauliflower you have chopped by hand.) Add these to the bowl with the cauliflower and zucchini.

Chop the onion coarsely, then process lightly in food processor. Set aside separately.

Combine in a 4-quart saucepan olive oil, basil, oregano, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, garlic, and onions. Cook mixture over medium heat until onion is translucent. It should not brown.

Add the vegetables and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. The vegetables should still be slightly crunchy. Then add the chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and sugar, and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Mix together mozzarella and feta cheeses and set aside.

To make bechamel heat milk, cream, white pepper, thyme, nutmeg and basil in a small saucepan until near boil. Turn off heat. Melt butter in a medium saute pan. When foam from butter recedes, remove from heat, add flour and mix well. Return to medium-low heat and, stirring frequently, simmer for 2 to 3 minutes to cook, but not brown, the flour.

Gradually stir in hot milk and cream mixture. Raise heat to medium-high and continue stirring until mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes. Add Parmesan and Romano cheeses and whisk until smooth.

To make topping, mix together bread crumbs, Parmesan, and parsley. Reserve.

To Assemble and Bake

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Spread a few tablespoons of the Garden Sauce in the bottom of a shallow baking dish (9x13 inches). Lay in one layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Spoon on 3 cups of sauce. Spread a scant cup of the bechamel across the sauce in 2 diagonals ( no need to spread evenly at this point). Top with half of the mozzarella/feta cheese mixture. Lay on another layer of lasagna noodles and repeat, using same amounts of sauce, bechamel, and cheese.

Top with last layer of noodles, and with finger tips, press lightly to distribute bechamel smoothly in the layers. Using a long, narrow metal spatula, frost top layer of noodles with remaining bechamel. Be sure to completely cover noodles so that they do not dry out during baking. (There will be no bechamel to spare, so, using a rubber spatula, salvage every speck.) Sprinkle evenly with bread crumb mixture.

Bake lasagna at 400 F for about 60 minutes or until sauce bubbles around the edge and the top is nicely browned. If top browns too quickly, cover with aluminum foil during last 15 minutes of cooking. If baking the lasagna straight from the freezer, add about 20 minutes to cooking time. Once out of the oven, let lasagna set up for about 20 minutes before serving. (This is critical for ease of serving.)

Serves 8 to 10.