Another Lasagne Recipe

If you’ve had or seen a version of it in ravioli, then you can put it in lasagne. As always with Italian food, keeping it simple works best, letting just two or three flavours work with each other. The combination in the recipe below is basically mushrooms with a blue cheese sauce.

Other combinations that work really well with a cheese sauce to top it off (blue or mozzarella – you decide) include:

ricotta +  spinach/butternut squash + thyme / baked chicory+ gorgonzola/ simple baked tomatoes, tomato sauce, pesto / artichokes/ aubergine + red peppers w tomato sauce/goats cheese with asparagus (or crushed walnuts)/griddled courgettes + tomatoes or any kind of ratatouille vegetable mixture

If you make your own pasta (and life is rather short so why?) you can try making beetroot pasta (add two pureed baked beetroot to the dough mix) but then the filling has to be really simple, say, goats cheese with thyme or possibly mint and keep the topping minimal such as ricotta topped w parmesan to give a cheese crust. If you fancy red pasta, you can add tomato puree, pesto makes gren etc.

Serve with green salad.

Ingredients:

40g butter melted, plus a tbsp oil to cook the mushrooms
40g plain flour
600ml milk
200g gorgonzola, crumbled
400g field mushrooms sliced
A handful of parsley chopped, or thyme
9 sheets lasagne egg pasta
150g mozzarella
20g parmesan

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a suitable tin.

Melt the butter then add the flour and cook for a minute or two stirring continuously until the roux starts to bubble. Turn the heat down and add the milk gradually stirring well. Once you have a smooth sauce, cook it for 10 more minutes whisking continuously. Sieve if necessary.

Add the gorgonzola, possibly a grating of nutmeg and some pepper. Melt it over a gentle heat until you have a creamu bechamel.

Heat the oil and fry the mushrooms with the parsely/thyme. Lay half down on the base of the tin. Tope with a layer of cheese sauce. Lie three sheets of lasagne on top and repeat. Top the last layer of pasta with mozzarella and parmesan and bake in th eover for 30-40 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes and serve warm with a green salad.