Leftovers "Lasagna" - Grain-free fridge-cleaning goodness!

Hmm... I gots ham, cheese, salsa...

I should have taken a picture.

No really! I had this awesome edible lunch contraption, and I fed it to my family... without taking a picture first.

Not that it would have been very pretty. It was a layered mess in a pyrex dish. But so goood! Granted, I happened to have a LOT of leftover lasagna making ingredients. I'm sure to have a different mix of ingredients next time, but cooking is an adventure, and I'll certainly riff on this same theme.

It's been a couple weeks since I made the beast-that-was-not-lasagna, using leftovers from the fridge, but I wish I'd written it down. Hence, here's what I remember of this gluten-free goodness.

It's-Not-Lasagna Layered Leftovers Bake
(for oven or microwave)


Ingredients

• Thinly-sliced ham
• Selection of leftover hard cheeses: parmesan*, romano, gruyere, etc. Believe it or not, I mixed half-empty bags of leftover dairy and dairy-free shredded cheeses.
• Ricotta
• Mozzarella
• Leftover ground beef
• Black olives, sliced
• Tomato sauce, "pasta" sauce, salsa - whatever you've got on hand

Method
Grab the handiest four-sided pyrex dish that seems large enough to feed a small family. (Or just yourself, if you're making this for one.) If you plan to use the microwave, use a square dish.

1. Lightly grease the bottom of the dish.
2. Line the bottom of the dish with with one overlapping layer of ham. 
3. Layer up:
• A thin coating of shredded cheese
• Ground beef
• Ricotta (enough to coat the beef - gently use a spatula to spread)
• Sauce / Salsa
• Olives
• Random toppings - just layer up whatever you'd like
• Save some mozzarella and parmesan for the top, like with pizza.

Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes at 350F - just long enough to melt the cheese and get the meats good and hot.  Alternately, lightly cover and put it in the microwave on high for 3-4 minutes at a time, letting it pause a moment between cycles and checking to see if its done. I recommend "watching" it like this until you know how it will behave as it cooks in your microwave - sometimes, sauces trapped under melting cheese "burst" before the ricotta and ground beef have had the chance to fully warm. Add to that the tendency for ham to "pop" when nuked.

Let it rest for a few minutes after pulling it out of the oven/microwave. Cut and serve like slightly-soupy lasagna! Yum!