Yes, I know, vegetable lasagne, yawn or whatevs. BUT! There is a reason that vegetable lasagne is the meat-free option of choice touted about by lazy restaurants: Because it is delicious, and hearty, and good for you (and really cheap to make, so the mark-up per portion is a ker-ching! fest as far as restauranteurs are concerned).
So there you go, I give you veggie lovers a tasty vegetable lasagne recipe because it may be simple, and nothing you have not seen before, but that is why we love it, like chips, or Des O'Connor, or The X Factor.
Because of its relative mundanity, people are pretty into fucking about with vegetarian lasagne, which is all very well and good, but I prefer a much simpler (and easier to make) version with some nice chunky vegetables such as peppers, courgettes and mushrooms, thick tomato sauce, and a topping of gooey, rich cheesy lovliness that all good lasagnes should have.
Good old Jamie Oliver uses a tub of fromage frais instead of making cheese sauce for his lasagne recipe, which is a lot less hassle, and much healthier, so I'm nicking the idea and using fromage frais in this one too.
Ingredients (6 humble portions, 4 beasty portions)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 red, green and orange/yellow pepper, chunkily chopped
1 courgette chunkily chopped
1 handful of chesnut mushrooms, sliced
1 handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 cloves of garlic
1 box of dried lasagne sheets (probs won't need to use them all)
1ltr jar of pasatta
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch of fresh basil
200g fromage frais
150g grated cheese
olive oil
black pepper
Directions
In a nice deep frying pan, heat a glug of oil and fry the onion and garlic on a medium heat for 5mins to bein to brown and soften.
Add the pepper, courgettes and mushrooms and continue to fry for 10mins until they begin to brown also. Throw in the cherry tomatoes and the bay leaf and cook for a further 5mins, stirring now and again.
Add a good helping of black pepper and pour over pasatta. Simmer for 10-15mins, stirring occasionally to thicken. Stir in fresh basil.
Turn oven on to 200C/ gas mark 5.
Spoon a third of the tomato sauce (a few ladles full) into a deep oven dish. A sqaure one is best if you have it. Lay lasagne sheets on top and repeat with rest of mixture, making sure you finish with a layer of lasagne sheets.
Spread the fromage frais over the top layer of lasagne sheets and top with the cheese.
Bake in the oven for 45mins until pasta is cooked. You can test this by sticking a knife in. If it goes right through smoothly it's done. If not, keep giving it 5 more mins until it is done.
Serve with a fresh green salad and garlic bread.
