My mother taught me that there’s one essential key to delicious dishes—fresh ingredients. Recipes don’t have to be fancy and intricate, with many processes, and a laundry list of requirements. Less is more is her opinion.

Growing up in an Italian household, our harvest lasagna consisted of very few ingredients that were grown, canned, and, if store-bought, always imported. That’s why I never add onions, peppers, or, God forbid, sugar  to my traditional marinara sauce. It’s not the Italian way. And I don’t care much for flavored cheeses … I’m a food snob for simple ingredients and it shows in my both my recipes and my bank account. (My weekly grocery shopping takes me to at least three places, with no expense spared on fresh food. Consequently, I come home broke.)

Making a harvest lasagna often entails a plethora of steps and a juggling of ingredients—my mother never makes hers without homemade noodles and hand-pulled buffalo mozzarella. But for my Zucchini Harvest Lasagna with Bison, I’ll improvise with a few store-bought items and make it easy on you. But it won’t lack flavor! This delicious recipe contains seasonal constituents, only fresh and easily digestible cheeses, and subs fresh zucchini for half of the noodles for a healthy, new-school version. I’ve also included a gluten-free option. But please, don’t tell my mom …

The recipe:

For the sauce:

2 pounds ground buffalo or bison meat
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 large heirloom tomatoes (or 10 medium tomatoes), chopped
1 twenty-eight-ounce can of Bionaturae BPA-free, crushed tomatoes
2 handfuls fresh basil, stemmed and chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Heat a large pot or Dutch oven containing two tablespoons oil on medium heat.
2. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Do not brown.
3. Add fresh and canned tomatoes to the pot. Bring to a simmer.
4. Add basil and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and puree with a stick blender or process in batches in a food processor or blender.
6. In a second pan, add buffalo and brown, breaking meat up as it cooks.
7. Add buffalo and drippings to the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes more.

Note: If you don’t mind your sauce chunky, with the occasional skin, you can omit the blending and cook everything in one pot

For the harvest lasagna:

1 twelve-ounce package Bionaturae organic lasagna noodles, cooked half way
2 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise and paper-thin
2 eight-ounce packages fresh mozzarella, grated
1 jar full-fat ricotta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. In a 9’ x 11” pan, assemble the lasagna by placing one layer of sauce, followed by one layer of noodles, then a layer of zucchini, and ¼ portion of both kinds of cheese. Topped with meat sauce.
2. Follow this layering pattern until you reach the top of your baking dish, and then complete your masterpiece with one layer of cheese and sauce.
3. Cover with aluminum foil or a reusable silicone lid for a safer option.
4. Bake covered for 45 minutes. Remove cover and brown for 5 to 10 minutes more. Test center for doneness.
5. Remove lasagna from oven and let sit for 15 minutes, allowing it to set. Then cut and serve.

Gluten-Free Option: Omit noodles and double the amount of zucchini.

The skincare pairing:

I’m celebrating the fresh cheeses in this week’s harvest lasagna by pairing them with LimeLight by Alcone’s Quench Cleanse. (My apologies to my lactose-free friends!) You see, during the autumn time when our summer digestive flame starts to simmer out, it’s time to ditch the aged cheeses and instead eat only fresh cheeses, with all their cultures and enzymes intact.

LimeLight’s Quench Cleanse—my favorite fall and winter cream cleanser—is as gentle on your skin as the fresh cheeses are on your tummy. And the wheat germ oil contained in this product is high in vitamins A, D, and E—key nutrition factors also found in whole milk. Additionally, wheat germ oil can curb inflammatory conditions that some people experience in the fall, such as eczema or psoriasis,

So if you haven’t swapped out your sudsy cleanser for a cream cleanser yet, now’s the seasons to do so. A cream cleanser won’t strip the skin of its natural oils and will leave you with a healthy glow, even as the climate turns windy, harsh, and dry.