It’s the season where vegetables seem to come in waves of excess. Here’s a nice weekday lasagne for any of you that are still harvesting courgettes. Our friend Nicola also dropped by with some home-grown salad ingredients including these pretty nasturtiums.
Wine Suggestion: We think fresh, crisp whites work with courgettes really well and when combined with pasta and cheese naturally lean towards young Semillon, Chenin Blanc or Chablis. To mix it up a bit, however, we tried the Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi from Piedmont in Italy, another good option.
Courgette Lasagne – serves 6
- 8 plum tomatoes, halved
- 2 garlic cloves, lightly bashed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- ½ tbsp golden caster sugar
- 2 leeks, sliced into rings
- 20g unsalted butter
- 100g baby spinach
- 500g courgettes, grated
- 10 lasagne sheets
- 250g tub of ricotta
- 125g mozzarella, torn
- 50g Parmesan, grated
Heat the oven to 200C/180 fan/gas 6.
Put the halved tomatoes onto a baking tray with the garlic, oil, rosemary and season well. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until soft, then discard the rosemary and remove the skin from the garlic. Put the tomatoes and garlic in a blender and blitz a few times to make a chunky sauce.
Meanwhile, put the leeks in a pan over a low heat, add the butter, season and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add the spinach and grated courgettes, and continue to cook for another couple of minutes to wilt and soften. Set aside.
Layer the ingredients in a large ovenproof dish starting with a layer of tomato sauce, then some pasta, followed by ricotta and vegetables. Repeat until all the ingredients are used, finishing with a vegetable layer. Scatter over the mozzarella and Parmesan, then bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.
(Original recipe by John Torode in BBC Good Food Magazine, August 2016.)
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