A Really Good Vegetable Lasagne

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

lasagne sheets, fresh or instant
200g mozzarella cheese, or parmesan

Spicy tomato sauce – an arrabbiata with extras
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 fresh chilli, medium, finely diced
1 C pitted olives
2 tbsp capers, drained
4 C ripe tomatoes, diced (or equivalent – 2 tins are great)
handful fresh basil (if available)
salt & pepper

Grilled vegetables
use what you have here, such as:
2 zucchini
1 eggplant
1 red capsicum
small wedge pumpkin
handful mushrooms
greens eg. kale, spinach, silverbeet

Lemon Ricotta
500g fresh ricotta
rind and juice of 1 lemon
small handful basil, sliced
salt and pepper

Summary

When a Fair Food customer wrote to share this recipe for the World’s Best Vegetable Lasagna, we admit we had doubts. That’s a big call, after all. But we can confirm it’s utterly delicious – the lemon ricotta is genius (sorry bechamel) and it is all-comfort with a rich and spicy tomato sauce. Here’s our adapted version.

Really Good Vegetable Lasagne

Make the sauce. This (along with cooking some veggies) can be made ahead of time, possibly even in a large quantity for several different meals). Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onion, garlic, and chilli and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add olives, capers & fresh tomatoes, and cook a couple minutes more before adding the rest of the ingredients. If you’re out of fresh tomatoes, replace with a couple of tins or small bottles of crushed tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, lower the heat and let simmer for a half-hour or more with a lid on.

Grill or bake whichever veggies you have to use – zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, mushrooms, kale, pumpkin etc. Slice evenly and coat them with a little olive oil and salt, lightly roasting them under the grill or in a griddle pan or on a tray in the oven. As a guide, try 1-2 zucchini, 1 eggplant, 1 capsicum and a half bunch of silverbeet or spinach (this doesn’t need roasting) for a medium sized lasagne.

Mix ricotta ingredients together in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with a thin layer of tomato sauce, then add a layer of lasagna, a layer of lemon-ricotta, then grilled vegetables, fresh greens, then cover with a layer of that delicious tomato sauce. Repeat 2-3 times. Top the last layer with the rest of the vegetables, the tomato sauce, the lemon-ricotta and the grated mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until crispy golden on top.

Recipe adapted with thanks from Green Kitchen Stories.