I have been asked to share my recipe of lasagne time and time again. I do not make it very often at home and actually i dont know why. This is a chicken lasagne recipe and quite healthy because i do not use any cream or butter. It can be made vegetarian, with sea food or even beef or lamb mince. I will give you all the options. I also used spinach in it as i simply love the combination of spinach and white sauce. The taste was very good and i am sorry for the quality of the pics as my daughter got her hands on it before i could take the proper pic. I was waiting for the baked lasagne to cool so i could cut a proper piece and take a pic… Alas she got to it before i could do so and ravished it!!! My recipe lacks butter and full fat milk but you can always make the white sauce using butter ( i will write that option also):
INGREDIENTS :
for the chicken (or meat of your choice):
500 grams of minced meat or chicken
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 small glass of white wine(optional)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon of Nitu Didi oregano
1 teaspoon of Nitu Didi mixed italian herbs
1/4 cup of chopped red bell pepper (capsicum)
1/4 cup or more of tomato paste
3 tablespoons of light olive oil
salt, black pepper and some chilli sauce (optional) to taste
for the spinach layer:
3 cups of boiled spinach, well drained with salt added
for the white sauce:
2 tablespoons of white flour
3/4 litre of skimmed milk
salt and pepper to taste
grated emmental cheese or any cheese of your choice
Aditional:
1 packet of lasagne sheets, the one i used was 400 grams
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of Nitu Didi oregano
100 grams of grated cheese ( i used a ready made packet with 3-4 different types of cheese)
METHOD:
To save time lets start on the mince while boiling the pasta sheets acording to the directions on the packet.
Heat the light olive oil in a deep pan and add the chopped onion, minced garlic, bay leaf and sautee till the onion turns light brown. Add the mince and cook till the meat browns.
Add the wine and cook till the wine evaporates (be patient…the wine needs to evaporate to give the lovely flavor). Add the red bell pepper and the herbs and cook till the bell pepper softens.
Add the tomato paste and the black pepper and chilli sauce and mix well. Turn off the flame. If the mince is too thick you can add a bit of water or stock to it.
For the white sauce:
Heat a non stick saucepan and add the white flour for about 15 seconds stirring so it does not burn. Remove from heat and add a bit of the milk ( say 1/4 litre) and mix well so that there are no lumps. Return to heat for a minute till it starts to thicken stirring all the time so there are no lumps formed. Add the rest of the milk and cook till sauce is thickened. Add salt to taste sparingly and the salt , pepper and the oregano. Add the grated cheese and remove from the heat.
TO ASSEMBLE:
in a baking tray put a layer of the white sauce followed by a layer of the lasagne sheets. Add a layer of the mince and top it with some white sauce. Cover with a layer of the pasta sheets and then a layer of the cooked spinach and some white sauce. Repeat layers till all the ingredients are used up.If you do not have enough white sauce just layer it with the mince and spinach ( i say this because in each place the packets of lasagne sheets are of different sizes) . Top with the white sauce and sprinkle grated cheese liberally. Put into a hot oven at 200 degrees and bake till the cheese is nice and bubbly.
OPTIONS:
This can be made with fish : use boneless fish and cook it as above.
This can be made with soya mince : just follow the the same way as the chicken mince. You need to soak the soya granules in warm water for about an hour.
This can be made with mixed veggies: sautee them as above and omit the wine and then cook with the tomato paste
The white sauce can be made with whole milk and butter : just sautee the white flour with butter and then add the milk.
The type of cheese you use is absolutely your choice. For best results use a variety of grated cheese
There! I think this is a complete recipe. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me
nitu didi 