Doug bought me a new cookbook for Christmas and this weekend we
decided to make a dish from it together. Tough choice as to what to
make...it's an Italian cookbook and we love almost all Italian dishes.
We chose this lasagne recipe not even realizing it could also be a Lenten recipe. Whoo-Hoo...double duty recipes ROCK!
The
real name of this recipe is Green Lasagne. But in our small town, no
green lasagne noodles were to be found, so we're going to call it
Vegetable Lasagne. Works for me!!
It looks a bit much at first, but really it's easy to put together. We chopped all the veggies earlier in the day and that helped speed things up. You could even make your sauces completely in advance and then you just have to assemble it and pop it in the oven. (If not making in advance, just be sure to give yourself plenty of time, the red sauce needs to simmer for 45 minutes.)
Here's what you need to get this started:
1 recipe Maria Rosa's sauce, recipe follows
12 Lasagne noodles, cooked, cooled and drained on a dish towel (I like to cook extra just in case some stick to the pan, I cooked 15)
1 recipe White sauce, recipe follows
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Ladle 1/2 cup Maria Rosa sauce on the bottom of a buttered 9 X 13 baking dish.
3. Place 3 lasagne noodles side by side over the sauce.
4. Top noodles with one quarter of the remaining Maria Rosa sauce.
5. Top Maria Rosa sauce with one quarter of the White sauce.
6. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese over all.
7. Place 3 more lasagne noodles over Parmesan and repeat steps 4, 5 and 6.
8. Place 3 more lasange noodles on top and repeat steps 4,5 and 6 again.
9. Place last 3 lasagne noodles on top and repeat steps 4, 5 and 6, using all the remaining sauce for this layer.
10. Bake until bubbly and lightly browned on top, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before cutting.
Maria Rosa Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onions
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian, flat leaf parsley
4 cups canned whole plum tomatoes, about one 35 oz. can
(crush the tomatoes using your hands or chop with a knife before adding to the sauce, or puree them in a food processor if you like your sauce less chunky)
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add carrots, celery and onion and garlic and cook until softened about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the parsley and tomatoes.Bring the sauce to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until the tomatoes are sweetened and cooked about 45 minutes.
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White sauce:
6 tablespoons of butter
6 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
3 cups skim milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Melt butter in medium size saucepan set over medium-low heat.When butter is foaming, whisk in the flour. Whisk in the milk.Cook, whisking frequently, until the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes, more or less time as needed.Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper to taste and nutmeg.
This was a
very tasty lasagne. Not a traditional "American" lasagne, and I think that's what I liked about it. You could definitely add some browned sausage or ground chuck to the red sauce and make it more hearty. Without the meat, it's a great addition to our Lenten recipes, for sure!
AND it heats up well the next day for leftovers! Does this make it a triple duty recipe???
According to the cookbook the Maria Rosa sauce is good on any type of long tubular pasta, like penne, ziti or rotini. I'll be trying that in the future!
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