Family favourite veggie lasagne
I’ve been working on this veggie lasagne on and off for a while now as I wanted to get exactly the right balance of tomato and cheese sauce to pasta. I think I went through five different versions, each with slight tweaks to the sauce and a streamlining of the ingredients to keep things as simple as possible, without compromising on taste obviously! Finally, I think I’ve cracked it, so here’s the recipe for you guys to try, let me know what you think.
As there are two main elements to making a lasagne, the way I do it is to cook the tomato sauce the day before (or even two), so all I need to make is the cheesy béchamel and then assemble. This cuts the work time to 20-30 minutes on the day as lasagne can sometimes seem too time-consuming. A bonus is that this recipe serves 6-8, so you should have dinner sorted for a couple of days too.
When we are finally allowed to socialise, lasagne is a great dish to make for friends (roll on June!!) as you can do all the prep ahead, pop it in the oven when your guests arrive and serve with a big green salad. I’d be pretty surprised if you got any complaints from meat-eaters as this lasagne is full of flavour, from the umami of the tomato sauce to the lovely rich cheesy béchamel. It’s certainly a favourite in our multi-diet house!
Ingredients
Serves 6-8
1 aubergine, ½ cm slices
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, grated
2 red peppers, small dice
1 courgette, sliced
1 vegetable stock cube
800g tinned tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
½ tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
1 handful of basil, stalks chopped, leaves torn
500g fresh lasagne sheets
Cheese sauce
90g butter
90g flour
1L milk
1 tsp sea salt
150g Gruyère or Comte cheese
150g gouda, grated or sliced
50g parmesan, grated finely
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Brush a large tray with oil and spread out the aubergine, turning to make sure both sides are coated in oil. Sprinkle with sea salt. Roast for 20 minutes turn and cook for 5-8 minutes more. Cut the slices in half and set aside.
While the aubergine is roasting, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large pan and cook the onion and celery for 10 minutes.
Next add the peppers for 5 minutes and then repeat adding the garlic and courgettes.
Pour in the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, basil stalks and ½ a tin of water (swilling out to get the last bits of tomato juice). Simmer for 20 minutes.
Then add the aubergine, red wine vinegar and sea salt for another 5 minutes. Finish by stirring in the basil leaves.
Cheesy béchamel sauce: while the tomato sauce is bubbling away, melt the butter in a large non-stick saucepan and then tip in the flour, use a silicon whisk to mix thoroughly and allow to warm through for a minute.
Start pouring the milk in slowly, 50ml at a time, so you don’t get lots of splashing as you whisk it in.
Quickly add the next 50ml, whisk rapidly and repeat until you’ve used about 300ml, then you can start adding 100ml each time. Once you’ve poured in all the milk leave on a low heat for a further 10-12 minutes to thicken, but whisk or stir regularly so you don’t get lumps.
Add 100g of Gruyère or Comté, 25g parmesan, sea salt and a good grind of pepper; stir well and allow to melt for a couple of minutes.
Now assemble the lasagne in a large oven proof dish (I used 24 x 33cm) by first adding a big spoon or two of the tomato base, a ladle of cheese sauce (drizzle over the tomato generously), gouda and then 2 lasagne sheets. Repeat until the last layer of pasta and then cover with cheese sauce and the rest of the Gruyère/Comte and parmesan.
Bake in the oven at 180ºc for 35-40 mins. If the top still needs a little browning then place under a hot grill for a minute or so, but watch like a hawk so it doesn’t burn!
tip
There’s no need to pre-cook fresh lasagne sheets, although the packet will tell you to do so.
Cut any leftover lasagne into thick strips and use like pappardelle.
Stir a couple of handfuls of spinach into the tomato sauce to add some greenery.