Perfect Zucchini Lasagna (Not Watery!)

We cracked the code for the best zucchini lasagna! Roasted zucchini pasta and three cheeses make just the right Italian flavor.

After years of testing, we succeeded: we cracked the code Perfect Zucchini Lasagna! You might not share our delight if you’ve never tried a lasagna without pasta. It’s easy to try hard and end up with a watery mess. But not with this recipe! This zucchini lasagna alternates with beautiful layers of toasted zucchini pasta, a hearty garlic tomato sauce, and three gooey cheeses. Just as good, if not better than a classic lasagna! In fact, we might prefer it to the classic. Here’s what you should know about making an amazing lasagna that also happens to be gluten-free.

Other favorites? Spaghetti Squash Lasagna, Vegan Lasagna and Vegetarian Lasagna.

Ingredients for Zucchini Lasagna

This zucchini lasagna is not a traditional zucchini lasagna (although that would be nice too). It’s a pasta-free lasagna that uses zucchini strips instead of pasta! Zucchini gives off a nice texture, similar to cheesy messy pasta. This also makes it a gluten-free, paleo, and keto lasagna if that’s your dietary preference. For us: It is only yummy! Here are the main ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• Large Zucchini: Size matters here! It’s nice to have larger zucchini to layer with, and they fit in the pan easier than lots of small ones. But you can get away with a small or a medium if that’s all you’ve got.
• Ricotta, Parmesan and Mozzarella: The Italian flavors of this recipe sing with three cheeses!
• Homemade tomato sauce with tarragon: See section below. You can substitute oregano if you don’t have dried tarragon.
• Lemon zest and fresh thyme: These bring an absolutely essential flavor and freshness to the aromas.

Do you have any ricotta left? Try these genius ricotta cheese recipes.

How do I remove water from zucchini lasagna?

Zucchini contains more than 90% water. The biggest problem with a zucchini lasagna is a watery mess when you take it out of the oven. This has happened many times before, so we created this recipe to get the perfect texture every time. To Drain the Water from Zucchini Lasagna:

• Fry the zucchini noodles. This will boil a large amount of water. You will roast them at 450 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes. (This is much more effective than salting and draining the zucchini like some recipes do.)
• Don’t use too much tomato sauce. Tomato sauce also has a lot of moisture! This recipe calls for just the right amount of tomato sauce for the skillet.
• Thicken tomato sauce with cornstarch. This is another preventive measure! Adding some cornstarch gives an even thicker tomato sauce with less water.
• Let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes to set. Once it comes out of the oven there may be a little moisture. Let the lasagna rest and cool so it can absorb any remaining moisture.

With these steps, you’ll find that this zucchini lasagna isn’t watery and has the perfect classic lasagna texture.

Use 9 x 9 panning or equivalent volume

A note on the greatness of this recipe! You can only fry 2 pounds of zucchini at a time, which is just enough pasta for a 9×9 pan. If you cook for more people, you can make the 1.5x recipe for a 9x pan. 13 or make two 9 x 9 pans. Just note that you need to cook two batches of zucchini noodles! A good tip might be to toast the zucchini noodles beforehand (see below).

In these photos you can see that we used a small rectangular casserole dish that has the same volume as a 9 x 9″ bowl (10 cups or 2.5 liters volume).

Make homemade tomato sauce

For this Zucchini Lasagna, we recommend making this homemade tomato sauce instead of using a store-bought marinara sauce. Why?

• The sauce has an incredible taste. Tomato sauce is one of the biggest influences on the flavor of a lasagna. We promise you, it will be worth it!
• It is thickened to avoid a watery lasagna. As mentioned above, this sauce is thickened to avoid the problem of too much water. Many store-bought sauces can be too watery.
• The dried tarragon makes this a home run! Using dried tarragon in this recipe makes the flavors sing! If you can’t find it, you can use oregano. But it’s worth finding: especially if you’ve never tried it before.

Cooking tricks for zucchini lasagna

This Zucchini Lasagna takes about 45 minutes to prep, 40 minutes to cook, and 15 minutes to sit. So, do it if you have enough time! Here are a few things you can do to cut down on that 45 minute prep time.

• Fry the zucchini noodles beforehand. One of the biggest time savers is to toast the pasta ahead of time. Fry them and then put them in the fridge until cooked. They accumulate moisture in the fridge, so dry them before assembling them.
• Prepare the tomato sauce in advance. It’s easy to simmer the tomato sauce while preheating the oven. But you can do that before! Refrigerate until ready to serve: flavor will improve over time.

More zucchini recipes

Summer is synonymous with zucchini recipes! Here are some we recommend you try:

• Zucchini Boats A fun dinner full of Italian flavors.
• Zucchini in the Oven So easy to make, covered in a light layer of crunchy breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese! These vegetables are best roasted in a hot oven.
• Creamy Zucchini Pasta Easy and delicious flavored with parmesan, lemon and basil.
• Pumpkin Zucchini Casserole A cozy summer side dish topped with crunchy breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese.
• Best Zucchini Muffins Greek Yogurt makes them super moist, and Turbinado Sugar adds a satisfying crunchy topping.

This zucchini lasagna recipe is…

Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Paleo and Keto.