Lasagna is like a sandwich: You can put anything between the layers and it's still lasagna. In America, that tends to mean a supersize stack of tomato sauce, cheese, vegetables, what-have-you--with calorie counts and fat grams to match. (One top-rated online recipe has a staggering 1061 calories and 39 fat grams per serving!)

In Italy, however, lasagna is almost restrained by comparison, yet still delicious. A springtime lasagna might be delicately flavored with young artichokes, while in autumn, you'll find layers of pasta mingling with woodsy fresh porcini and winter squash.

Our recipes follow the Italian model, and that makes it easy to lighten up this much-loved dish. By relying more on vegetables and slimmer sauces--and less on full-fat cheeses--lasagna sheds its excess fat in favor of something that is savored everywhere: flavor.