Matzo lasagna — a vegetarian Passover entry anyone can love
Let's say that most of the folks coming to your place for the Passover feast are vegetarians. And let's say that you want to cater to them without breaking the hearts of the die-hard carnivores whose mouths water at the very thought of pot roast. Is there a centerpiece dish that will make everyone happy?
Yes. As long as your vegetarians can tolerate dairy, this “lasagna” is a winner.
Passover forbids the eating of most foods made with flour, which is why this recipe calls for whole matzos (an exception to that rule) in place of lasagna noodles. Matzo turns out to be a perfect stand-in. Thin and square (they're usual 6- or 7-inch squares) a whole sheet of matzo is a tailor-made bed on which to layer other ingredients. It also absorbs flavors beautifully, holds its shape when baked, and browns nicely in the oven.
I've paired the matzo with zucchini, which loses its watery blandness and gains a springlike assertiveness once it's been shredded, salted, squeezed and sauteed briefly with onions and garlic. The zucchini then is combined with my cheating version of a cream sauce. Typically, that would be a bechamel — milk or cream thickened with a roux. That's too much work. It's much easier simply to use a food processor to whiz together cottage cheese, milk, eggs and cream cheese. The result is a sauce as creamy and delicious as a bechamel without any of the gummy flour taste that can mar the classic sauce.
The matzos need to be soaked in some of the cheese mixture to soften them slightly before baking. To do so, stack them in a deep container that isn't much wider than the matzo itself. I used a square brownie pan and rotated each matzo's place in the stack every so often to make sure they all were evenly soaked. This is a way to counteract the fact that the liquid sinks to the bottom half of the container.
Once you set the matzos in a rectangular baking pan, it'll take two of them side-by-side to form a single layer. If your matzos are 7 inches square, they'll overlap a bit lengthwise, even as they fall slightly short of the pan's width. Not to worry. The filling will indeed ooze out slightly beyond the edges of the matzos, but as the dish bakes all the parts come together beautifully, allowing you to cut it into individual servings with no problem.
I dreamed up this dish as a Passover entree, but it would work equally well as the centerpiece for a brunch any time of the year. As for your Passover guests, here's a prediction from someone who married into the tribe: As soon as they realize they can't argue about the food, they'll happily move on to politics.
• Sara Moulton is the host of public television's “Sara's Weeknight Meals.” She was executive chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25 years and spent a decade hosting several Food Network shows, including “Cooking Live.” Her latest cookbook is “Home Cooking 101.”