Sun-dried Tomato & Artichoke Lasagna

Some of you might remember this post from January. Hubby had made us a pasta dish using sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, salami, rigatoni, vodka sauce, and a lot of cheese. We recently recreated this dish making a few adjustments. It came out wonderfully, and I finally have a recipe to share with you!

You will need:

• 9x13 in. casserole dish (3 quarts)
• 9 lasagna noodles
• 52 ounces (2 large jars) Vodka sauce
• 8 ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes (oil drained) chopped
• 14 artichoke hearts, chopped
• 32 ounces Italian cheese blend (we used 2 bags of Kraft cheese)
• pepperoni slices (as many as you want)

Yes, it's a ton of ingredients. The sun-dried tomatoes might have been 5 ounces and not 8, but I'm pretty sure about the 8 ounces. Yikes. With that aside, this is a super easy recipe that will feed your family for days and days. You can ever freeze it in a lidded casserole dish and save it for another time. Due to the size and density of this meal, I would say a 3 quart casserole dish should yield 16-18 servings, healthy size servings anyway =P

To assemble: Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of your casserole dish, on top layer the pepperoni in rows. On top of the meat sprinkle a thin layer of sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Add a layer of cheese, another layer of sauce and then three of the lasagna noodles, boiled. You don't have to boil the lasagna noodles, but I find doing a quick boil just to soften them makes the noodles easier to work with. Continue your next layer until you've used all 9 of the noodles. Once your finish your last layer (without adding noodles on top) cover generously with the remaining sauce and then top with a lot of cheese. Since everything is cooked already, transfer the dish to a 375 F oven for half an hour. Once the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling, place under your broiler on high and brown the cheese. Let sit at least 15 minutes before serving.

You should have a total of four layers and that's counting the bottom layer of sauce, meat, veggies, and cheese. So layer it like this: Sauce, meat, veggies, cheese, sauce, noodles, sauce, meat, veggies, cheese, sauce, noodles, sauce, meat, veggies, cheese, sauce, noodles, sauce, meat, veggies, sauce, cheese. So the last layer is a bit different, just make sure you don't put noodles on the top because you want everything covered nicely with sauce so it stays moist. That's why you only need 9 lasagna noodles even though this makes a giant casserole. You can easily make this vegetarian by leaving out the pepperoni, and definitely make it vegan by using a vegan cheese and making your own vodka sauce. So delicious, the combination of flavors is simply amazing. Definitely a favorite in our household.

I served up my lunch with a side of steamed broccoli and Greek salad ^_^