A hot, gooey and bubbling veggie lasagne fresh from the oven. Layer up lasagne sheets with a roasted vegetable and soy mince tomato sauce, mascarpone besciamella and melting mozzarella.
Prep Time40 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr10 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr50 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian, Mediterranean
Keyword: cheese, christmas, lasagne, vegetables
Servings: 6
Author: Sanjana
Equipment
Oven-safe baking dish. I used a 30cm x 19cm x 7cm deep lasagne dish.
Ingredients
For the roasted vegetables:
1courgettecut into half moons
1auberginecut into chunks
2red onionspeeled and cut into chunks
2pepperscut into chunks
80gcherry tomatoes
1bulb garlicunpeeled
3/4tspsalt
75mlextra-virgin olive oil
75gsoy mincesoaked in hot water, rinsed well and squeezed of excess water (or use 100g frozen)
For the rest of the lasagne:
500gtomato passata
200mlwater
2tbspextra-virgin olive oil
1tspchilli flakes
1tspdried oregano
1tspgaram masala
10gfresh basil leavestorn
400gdried lasagne sheets
200ggmozzarellatorn
1/2red onion, finely sliced
50gCheddar
2chilliesfinely sliced
1tbspextra-virgin olive oil
For the mascarpone besciamella (white sauce):
50gplain flour
75gbutter
800mlfull-fat milk
250gmascarpone
1/2tspsalt
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
In a large roasting tray, combine the chopped vegetables, garlic cloves in their skins, olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Toss well to coat and roast in the oven for 40 minutes whilst you make the tomato sauce.
For the tomato sauce:
Heat two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the chilli flakes, dried oregano and garam masala. Sauté for 10-15 seconds and then add the soy mince. Cook the mince for 5-6 minutes until it's very lightly browned in places.
Add the passata and water. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir well. Bring to the boil and add the torn basil leaves. Stir and cover. Cook over a medium-low heat for 25 minutes.
For the mascarpone besciamella (white sauce):
Melt butter in a pan. Once the butter begins to foam, add the flour and stir well. Cook the flour out over a low heat for about a minute. Do not let the flour brown. Switch the heat off.
Stirring or whisking all the time, add the milk. Once the mixture is free from lumps, switch the heat back on to medium and add the mascarpone and salt. Whisk well until completely smooth.
Continue to cook the sauce, stirring all the time until it has thickened. Make sure not to let the sauce catch on the bottom of the pan. It's ready when the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Switch the heat off and set the sauce aside.
To finish the tomato sauce:
Once the vegetables have finished roasting, allow them to cool slightly. Slip the garlic cloves out of their skins and add them back into the tray. Roughly mash the vegetables. This will give us tonnes of flavour and a more uniform sauce.
Add the mashed roasted vegetables to the tomato sauce and stir well. Taste to check the seasoning. Set aside.
To build the lasagne:
Take a deep lasagne dish or baking tray. Add a small amount of the tomato sauce to the bottom and layer in some lasagne sheets. Top with more tomato sauce, some torn mozzarella and more lasagne sheets. Try to alternate the direction of you pasta layers so the finished lasagne has good structure.
Cover the lasagne with some of the mascarpone besciamella and top with more lasagne sheets. Repeat the layering process, alternating between the sauces until everything has been used up. The final layer should be the white sauce. In total, I got 8 layers of pasta and used 24 lasagne sheets in my 30cm x 19cm x 7cm deep lasagne dish.
Top the lasagne with grated Cheddar, any leftover mozzarella, red onions, chillies and a final drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
Bake in the preheated oven at 200°C/400°F for 25 minutes. After this, turn the heat down to 160°C and continue to bake for a further 25-30 minutes. If the top starts browning too much, cover the lasagne loosely with aluminium foil.
Allow the lasagne to stand for 20 minutes before serving. This will give the pasta time to become one with the sauce so it doesn't turn to slop when you try to slice it. Don't worry, it will still be incredibly hot inside after this time.