Skillet Summer Vegetable Lasagna

from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, adapted slightly from America's Test Kitchen

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped fine
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (28-oz.) can diced tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• 10 curly-edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch lengths
• 1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 small yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
• 1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Drain tomatoes into a 2-cup liquid measure. Add water to tomato liquid to make 2 cups. Add tomato/water mixture and 1 teaspoon salt to skillet.
Scatter noodles into the skillet, layer tomatoes over the noodles and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, covered, stirring occasionally (so the noodles won’t stick!) for about 10 minutes.
Stir in zucchini and squash, cook, stirring now and then, until noodles and squash are tender, about 8 minutes. Add basil and half of the ricotta cheese and half of the Parmesan cheese to the noodles, stirring until the sauce is creamy. Dollop remaining ricotta cheese over the noodles, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Notes to Self: This is the perfect recipe for a nice summer meal. Almost everything I used was something I grew or canned. I haven't had lasagna noodles on hand whenever we've made this so I used bow tie pasta, about 2/3 of a bag. I also haven't had ricotta either and just used cream cheese which made it very creamy and rich...not a bad thing in my book, but would use about 2/3 a block of cream cheese, half to mix in and half to put on top. I am also a HUGE fan of fresh basil but if you don't have it, dry would probably work to.