I’ve been having a love affair with Pure Food & Wine lately. Whether it be brunch or dinner, I’ve been meeting friends and scheduling dinners because I simply can’t get enough. Now, I’ve mostly decided that I should only blog about a restaurant once, so I haven’t been really documenting these trips (I may amend this rule at some point, but for now, I’ve decided to only share new places on the blog). In any event, I’ve clearly become obsessed, and have been particularly obsessed with the lasagna. Zucchini, delicious cashew pesto/ricotta, and fresh tomatoes it really is an amazing dish. After digging through the cupboards for dinner one night, I realized I had just enough ingredients that I might be able to pull off my own version of Pure’s lasagna.

What I ended up with was a phenomenal dinner that we were both raving over. And even better – it was super simple to make. The assembly was a little tricky, but that could easily be solved in the future by simply making zucchini ribbons instead, and topping with the pesto ricotta. But if you have time to assemble, do. It’s just to darn pretty not to!

What you’ll need:

• 2 medium zucchinis, sliced thinly (or only one if you’re better at thin-slicing than I am)
• 1/4 cashews, soaked (in a pinch – like I was – feel free to boil them for a few minutes to soften)
• 2 cups fresh basil
• 1 TBS white miso paste
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 TBS olive oil
• Juice from 1/2 lemon (though my lemon was a little old and not so juicy – taste test this part!)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 block of tofu
• dash of salt to taste
• 1 fresh tomato or 1/4 can of fire-roasted tomatoes (my fresh tomato wasn’t terrific, so I opted to go for the canned tomato I had on hand – which makes it not quite raw – but if you had fresh on hand, that’s probably best).

Now, I wasn’t completely sure if this was going to turn out and was trying to throw it together after work and was not so interested in blogging it – so I have no pictures of the process. But once it was done, I couldn’t help but document.

Add the cashews, basil, miso, olive oil, lemon, garlic and tofu to a food processor and blend until everything is well mixed. You may have to stop and scrape down the sides a few times to get everything incorporated fully. Then that’s it – you’re ready to assemble. (I said it was easy!)

Place two slices of zucchini down side-by-side and spread some of the pesto mixture on top. Add tomato and another layer of zucchini. Top with pesto mixture and continue to layer until you’ve got a decent piece of lasagna assembled. To finish it off, add pesto to the top layer and a few more tomatoes. Garnish with a couple slices of basil. Voila. You have a delicious and healthy dinner.