I had some friends around to the new apartment tonight to help assemble some artwork (specifically a Foldeer) because I’m not as handy with arts and crafts as I’d like to be.
Cooking for carnivores is always fun and I feel one of the easiest ways to confuse their meat-eating instincts is with Italian food as many of these recipes are naturally meatless. This time I opted to make lasagna because being able to prepare the food and chuck it into the oven when I need it is perfect for entertaining. I’ve made plenty of lasagna in the past, usually opting to use a fake mince substitute, but thought I’d have a go whipping together a spinach and ricotta variety because I’m a bit of a cheese-fiend.
So while everyone else was getting messy with arts and crafts in the lounge I was busy putting the finishing touches to my improvised lasagna recipe. Fortunately it turned out pretty good – albeit a little ugly, but that can be refined next time I make it – and everyone woofed it down.
The recipe yielded six portions so I have some leftovers for dinner tomorrow (boo-yeah) and was pretty pretty easy to make.
RICOTTA & SPINACH LASAGNA
By Charlie Butler
yield: 6 portions
What you’ll need:
- 8 lasagna no-cook sheets
- 450g ricotta
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup of parmesan cheese
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Oil for frying (your choice; I use olive oil)
- 3 gloves of garlic (minced)
- 1/2 an onion (chopped finely)
- 750g canned tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon of sriracha sauce (more or less depending on your taste)
- 6 large button mushrooms
- Half a cup of mozzarella
How it’s done:
1. First things first you’ll want to get your oven heated up so preheat it to 400 degrees F. Grease your baking tray or line with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Next you’ll need to wilt your spinach. Simply plunge it into a pan of boiling water for around 10 seconds and then toss it into a bowl of ice water to stop it cooking. Squeeze out any excess water and finely chop it.
3. In a large bowl combine the now chopped spinach, ricotta, parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg and egg and mix everything together to combine it.
4. Heat up a saucepan and put in a little oil and add the onions, cooking them for a couple of minutes, and then chuck in the garlic. Let this cook until the onions are translucent then add the ketchup, sriracha and some salt and pepper to taste. Let this cook for a few minutes.
5. While the tomato sauce is doing its thing, finely slice the mushrooms and fry in a little bit of oil for a about three to four minutes.
6. It’s finally time to assemble the lasagna. If you’re using the no-cook noodles then all is good, otherwise prepare them as specified on the pack. Now, spread half of the spinach and ricotta mixture for the first layer, and place half of the chopped mushrooms on top of these. Now add a layer of lasagna sheets and cover in half of the tomato sauce. Got it? Now repeat the whole thing again: ricotta mix, mushrooms, lasagna, tomato sauce. Finally, top the whole thing off with the mozzarella.
7. Place the dish into your oven and cook for 25-30 minutes so the noodles become tender and the cheese is nice and golden brown on the top.