Vegetarian Lasagne

Directions

• Once all the vegetables are prepared and in a bowl, prepare the Tomato Sauce Base in a large frying pan.
• Once the tomato sauce is ready (and at this stage it doesn’t need to be too thick so you can add some water to it if needed, add all the vegetables to the sauce and mix well. The vegetables will reduce down as they cook and become more part of the sauce. Add a little more water as required.
• Cook the vegetables in the sauce for about 20 minutes until they are soft and have combined as part of the sauce. The sauce needs to have a fair bit of liquid as it will be needed to cook the lasagne sheets. Taste as it’s cooking and add salt and black pepper to taste as required.
• While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the Lasagne Sheets if you are making them fresh.
  
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
• Prepare the Bechamel Sauce and have it ready alongside the vegetable sauce mix to start building your lasagne.
• Once you have all the ingredients ready to go, oil the bottom and sides of a medium sized roasting tin. Add a layer of lasagne to the bottom, then layer over this a couple of ladles of the vegetable sauce. Spread out to cover the whole layer evenly. Add a ladel or two of bechamel sauce over the vegetable mix and then add the next layer of lasagne sheets.
  
• Repeat this process for two more layers. When you have the final layer of lasagne sheets added on top, you should have used all the vegetable mix but still have plenty of bechamel sauce left. You’ll need this for the top. Completely cover the last layer with plenty of bechamel sauce.
  
• If you wish, you can add a layer of Mozzarella or Cheddar cheese on top but I prefer to just sprinkle with finely grated parmesan and to grate fresh nutmeg on top as well as some freshly ground black pepper. The milk in the bechamel sauce will form a skin that browns nicely so the cheese is not necessary at all, but some people prefer to have that cheesy crust on top!
• Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for at least 10 minutes before attempting to serve. If you try to serve immediately, the lasagne will not stay together and will be a mess on the plate. Give it 10-15 minutes to sit and it will “gel” together better. Use a sharp knife to slice all around the roasting tin and then to cut the slices to the sizes you want. You should then be able to remove the slices without them falling apart.
  
• Serve with grated parmesan over the top and preferably with some Ligurian Focaccia – but that really will make it an all day cook! Garlic bread is always a nice option too 🙂