Archives - Kissing the Blarney

ANDRE?S VEGETARIAN LASAGNA, PLAIN SPINACH EDITION

This takes a standard white sauce, if your standard white sauce is made with grated nutmeg and English mustard.

The lasagne sheets I like are the corrugated ones; ours are usually the Roma brand.

All the other ingredients are uncooked, or pre cooked in the tin.

Opens enough tins of finely chopped spinach to feed everyone you expect. Slice a large onion per every four people thinly. Open a tin of cooked, peeled, tomatoes to any size chop you like; you can get some with herbs or garlic added and when I find those in the cupboard I always use them. Open a small tin of tomato puree for extra taste, or squeeze in a whole tube of puree. Chop or crunch a vegetable stock cube; don?t add salt on top it. Crush a very large clove of garlic or two smaller per every four diners (yes, even if there is already garlic in the chopped tomato). Throw in some chopped fresh basil if you have it, or herbes de Provence from a bottle if you don?t. Mix all these ingredients, together with a glass of the wine you will serve with the food, in a glass bowl. If you?re smart and trendy and not very strong-willed, white wine will be expected. If you just want good taste, use a robust red; I like South Australian Shiraz for this, but then I like the South Australian Shiraz for everything, including just drinking.

To prepare the lasagne dish, pour in a teaspoon or two of olive oil and a few drops of chili oil. They?ll mix on the piece of kitchen roll you use to wipe the dish thoroughly.

Grate two ounces of mature cheddar per diner. Slice a large tomato into flat slices.

Layer sauce, lasagna and the filling mix several times in the lasagne dish. When you get near the top, lay out an artistic arrangement of tomato slices. Sprinkle liberally with cheese and then with a good thick shake of paprika.

Baking instructions are on the lasagne packet. I bake mine in a fan-oven for about thirty minutes at 190 degrees, which is a bit hotter and shorter than advised by Roma or most recipe books: it keeps my lasagne al dente rather than soggy, and browns and crisps the top. I like a bit of crunch even in soft dishes.

Serve with a small salad. (Small because it will be wasted. People, having discovered how unexpectedly great a spinach lasagne tastes, will clear the dish for seconds and thirds, and be too full to eat the salad. But it looks mean not to put the salad on the table. And it?s good for you, right?) Don?t serve with bread; it?s barbaric to serve pasta with bread.

PS I stole this recipe from my pedal pal Helen about twenty years ago. Recently she heard me expound on it, and thanked me for giving it to her! The wicked will surely inherit the earth, or at least all the good recipes!

Great Meals I Have Cooked

Source: http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/archives/2707

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