Serves: 6
January is the month of new resolutions, one of which is usually to eat a more plant-based diet. While this lasagne can’t be included in a Veganuary menu (due to vast quantities of cheese-hurrah), if you are looking to reduce your meat consumption you could do worse than make this rich and satisfying lasagne. I always soak dried lasagne sheets in cold water to make them easier to handle and layer.
Ingredients
- 9-12 lasagne sheets, how many you use will depend on the size of the dish you use
- 90g butter
- 2 large leeks, trimmed and finely sliced
- 500g frozen leaf spinach, defrosted
- 1 courgette, trimmed and grated
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 250g ricotta
- 1 egg
- Good grating of nutmeg
- 45g plain flour
- 580ml (1 pint) milk
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped dill
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
- Ground white pepper
- 1 ½ jars artichokes in oil, drained and roughly chopped
- 250g mozzarella, drained and roughly chopped
- 130g Comté cheese, grated
Method
- Fill a deep dish with cold water and drop in the lasagne sheets. Leave to soak for about one hour. Heat the oven to 190°c, mark 6.
- Melt 40g butter in a large saucepan and add the leeks and a pinch of salt. Cook over a moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the leeks are soft but not coloured. Add the spinach, courgette and garlic and cook for a further 10 minutes. Take off the heat and stir in ½ teaspoon salt and a little ground black pepper. Leave to cool a little before beating in the ricotta, egg and nutmeg. Taste and season again if necessary.
- To make the sauce, put the remaining 50g butter and all the flour and milk in a saucepan and whisk over a low heat for about 8-10 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Cook for a couple of minutes then take off the heat. Stir in the dill and tarragon. Taste and season with salt and ground white pepper.
- To assemble the lasagne, spread about a third of the spinach mixture over the base of the dish. Scatter over a third of the chopped artichokes followed by a third of the mozzarella and a quarter of the grated Comté. Drain the lasagne sheets and lay three over the cheese (you may need a fourth if your dish is wide). Spoon over a third of the herb sauce and spread to the edges to cover the pasta. Repeat twice more ending up with the herb sauce. Scatter over the remaining quarter of Comté cheese and bake the lasagne in the oven for about 40 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with a tomato salad and garlic bread.