For my first recipe, here is my personal twist on the traditional lasagne. It might seem long but each step is broken down and timing is not so much of an issue so it’s ideal for people starting out. Often the biggest struggle isn’t the actual cooking but the timing itself.
This is also a very versatile recipe and the various components can be used for different meals so this isn’t just a recipe for lasagne, its also for pasta sauce, pizza topping, soup base (although more liquid would be needed) and it can all be frozen in plastic freezer bags either in sauce form or as a finished lasagne.
The below allows for 6 people and I tend to put some in the freezer for my own “ready meals” for during the week as they can be put in the microwave after to be reheated. It’s also useful to read through the recipe a couple of times first before you go shopping for the ingredients. The dish I’m using is 30cm x 22cm and will serve 6. You will need 2 x frying pans, a vegetable peeler, sharp knives, a colander or sieve and a magic whisk or similar (see recipe for details).
I’ve tried to explain the rationale for using certain ingredients or certain methods so whilst it might seem a bit long; there is good reason for it. (For those of you in a bit more of a hurry, I have put the extra guidance in brackets so you can skip over it for now and come back to it when you have more time!) If you have any questions at all, please ask and all feedback or recipe requests welcome.
Happy Cooking!
Ingredients (In order of cooking)
Light olive oil (to be used throughout)
2 large cloves of garlic (one for the tomato sauce and another for the chicken
Frozen chopped shallots x 1 bag or ordinary shallots chopped (half for the sauce and half for the chicken)
Passata x 600g
2-3 x large red chillies
Bunch of basil
Salt & Pepper
Tomato ketchup (I use reduced sugar & salt one)
600g Chicken (skinless and boneless)
1 x courgette
300g fresh spinach
50g butter
50g plain flour
50g grated cheese (I use Gruyere)
400ml milk (any kind)
Grating of nutmeg (optional)
Watercress & spinach fresh pesto (if you can’t find it, use any pesto but this one goes particularly well)
Organic fresh egg lasagne sheets
75g x Barrel aged feta cheese
Handful of pine nuts
Bag of salad to serve
1. Make your spicy tomato sauce. If you don’t like your food too hot you can adjust the amount of chilli (or leave the seeds out) or leave it out altogether. Equally, if you like your food particularly hot you can always put more in. This recipe is for a medium heat so it suits most people. (I use passata rather than chopped tinned tomatoes as they are sieved and you get a smoother, sweeter sauce. You can also get passata with basil, onions and garlic already added if you want a further short cut. Ocado do a carton of passata which has a lid and can be resealed and put back in the fridge afterwards which is useful if you’re not cooking in large quantities).
2. Start by frying off one large chopped garlic clove (Waitrose do ready peeled garlic cloves in a little tub which are handy) which has been cut down the middle with the green interior removed (as this tastes bitter). If you want to grind it into a paste after you’ve chopped it, you can put it in a little bowl with a pinch of sea salt and mash with the back of a spoon.
3. Heat a large frying pan with some light olive oil (extra virgin is fine but it will be stronger and will contribute an additional flavour to the sauce – no bad thing but it’s personal taste), fry off the garlic and add chopped shallots (around 5 heaped table spoons, I use Waitrose Cooks Ingredients frozen chopped shallots. Much easier!) Cook through until opaque, which should take around 4 minutes.
4. Now for the chilli – with a sharp knife, cut the end of the chilli off with the green stalk and cut it in half lengthways. It is at this point that you can remove (or leave) the seeds (which are the hottest part). Chop finely and then add three chopped large red chillies with most of the seeds removed. (WARNING: Make sure you wash your hands before rubbing your eyes or going to the toilet!) Fry off and then add around 650g of passata. It doesn’t matter if you have surplus, you can always freeze the sauce and use it for other recipes.
5. Next add some torn (not cut as it can bruise) fresh basil leaves (get a plant from your local supermarket, well worth it. Make sure you water it from the bottom) and season with freshly ground black pepper and Maldon Sea Salt to taste. (It isn’t vital that you use this salt but I find it the best, it’s a little bit saltier than “normal” salt and so you use less of it). Then add a pinch of dried, oregano, rosemary and thyme. (It’s a good idea to build up a store cupboard of dried herbs and you’ll use these ones quite often). Finally, continue to simmer the sauce and taste. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and if it tastes slightly acidic (which is due to the tomatoes) then add a heaped teaspoon of ketchup and stir. Put your sauce to one side.
6. Now its time to fry off the chicken. Take 600g mini chicken fillets (or breasts, whatever boneless and skinless chicken you have) and chop into bite size pieces. Make sure that you change or thoroughly clean chopping boards and knives after chopping raw meat to avoid contamination.
7. Next, heat a frying pan and fry off another chopped clove of garlic and a generous tablespoon full of chopped shallots. Fry the chicken so that it has been sealed (and is white/brown) all over. Then add the chicken to the tomato sauce that you made earlier which should be off of the heat.
8. If you want to serve this on its own with fresh pasta, cook the chicken through in the tomato sauce for another 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of the pieces) and then add the freshly cooked pasta to the sauce (always add the pasta to the sauce).
9. Anyway, back to the lasagne. Time to wilt the spinach and prepare the courgette. Wash one courgette in cold water, take a vegetable peeler and peel off long strips of the courgette so they look like ribbons. Put to one side for later when we assemble the lasagne.
10. Take 300g of fresh spinach and wash in cold water in a colander (large metal sieve). Take a pan and add a little light olive oil and heat. Once the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the spinach for around 30 seconds until the spinach is wilted. Season it with salt and pepper in the pan, drain off the excess liquid and put to one side. Do not rinse in cold water.
12. Take 50g of butter (unsalted or salted, doesn’t really matter as you’ll be tasting to adjust seasoning) and melt in a saucepan on a medium to low heat.
13. Once it has melted, add 50g of plain flour and whisk with the Magic Whisk, fork or spoon until the mixture has come together and there are no lumps. Turn the heat down slightly and cook the mixture, stirring regularly, until it is a light brown in colour (which should take around 3 minutes).
14. Once this has been done, incorporate the 400ml of milk (can be full fat, skimmed, goats...whatever! If you’re using soya please make sure it’s unsweetened) by adding a small amount and stirring in with the whisk. Do not stop stirring. Once the small amount of milk you have just added has been absorbed into the mixture, add a little more. It is always better (for avoiding lumps) to add too little than too much. Make sure the heat is on low while you are doing this. The mixture may seem to get thicker after the first couple of milk additions but don’t panic, you haven’t done anything wrong. Do not dump the rest of the milk in, keep adding it slowly. Once you have added half of the milk, you can start to increase the amount of milk you are adding each time until it has all been absorbed. You should end up with a smooth, white, creamy base sauce.
15. You can use this for a number of sauces and I will be covering this in more detail next week. At this point and still over the heat, add 50g of your favourite grated cheese (I use Gruyere) and stir until it has melted. Then add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. You can also add a small grating of nutmeg but it’s not essential.
16. Pre heat your oven to 180-200 degrees.
17. Now its time to put it all together! Take the serving dish and put half of the chicken and tomato sauce mixture and spread it across the bottom of the dish so that it is spread evenly. Then take the courgette “ribbons” and lay them across the chicken until it is completely covered.
18. For this dish you need three and a half pasta sheets for each layer (i use Organic Biona white pasta sheets, great flavour and texture and they don’t need pre cooking) laid side by side until the bottom layer is mostly covered.
19. Next, pour the rest of the chicken and tomato over the pasta and then spread the spinach randomly over the chicken and again cover with pasta sheets.
20. Take the white sauce and pour it evenly all over the pasta sheets. Take the feta cheese and crumble it over the top of the white sauce in even, medium size chunks (use your hands to break it up).
21. Then take a teaspoon and some fresh watercress and spinach pesto (sold in Sainsburys, Waitrose, Ocado etc and you can freeze it) and drizzle odd blobs of it randomly over the top of the lasagne. Sprinkle liberally with pine nuts around 10 minutes in to the cooking time. More pine nuts can be added to the other layers if you are a particular fan! If you do this you will need to toast them separately before you add them. Do this in a medium heat dry frying pan (do not add oil, the nuts have enough natural oil of their own) shaking frequently and taking care not to burn them. It shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes. You don’t need to do this to the ones added to the top as the oven will toast them during cooking.You can of course also add other things to the topping like sundried tomatoes in oil and sweet peppadew peppers or more chillies if you want to.
22. Put the lasagne in the oven and cook for around 40 minutes. Start to check the lasagne by poking with a sharp knife after around 35 minutes (especially if you have a fan assisted oven). When the pasta feels soft to the touch and the knife goes through easily and the top is bubbling, the lasagne is done. Cut into pieces and serve with salad.
