It’s been a tradition in my family that I make lasagna for Christmas dinner for many years. Some years I make a veggy lasagna, some years I make one with turkey sausage and sometimes I even make an alfredo lasagna with chicken. This year I had the new challenge of making a lasagna for my wife with no dairy. I still made a dairy lasagna for everyone else. This year I made it with organic chicken sausage from New Season’s, fresh mushrooms, onions and zucchini. I went to the store with the intention to get organic ricotta cheese, but when I saw how expensive it would be, I decided against it this time, especially after seeing how much the ricotta substitute was going to cost for my wife’s lasagne.

The best idea for a substitution that I could find for ricotta that had no dairy or soy was mixing crushed pignoli (pine) nuts, nutritional yeast, lemon and salt. I couldn’t believe how well it turned out, although I couldn’t believe how expensive raw pignoli nuts are (like $20.00/lb.). I found later that I could have mixed crushed almonds and/or cashews as well (next year!) or I found cheaper Pine Nuts at Amazon. I also used rice cheese and chicken sausage and made my wife a very delicious lasagne!