lasagna!

I love a good lasagna.  I have never made one that didn't have loads of cheese, including mozzarella and creamy ricotta.  But I had some mushrooms and fresh local tomatoes that needed using, and I thought I would try a different tack.  A lasagna made with a white sauce and a creamy mushroom tomato sauce.

First things first.  The tomato sauce.  I sliced some green garlic from a local farm very finely on my hand-held mandolin, then sliced onions,cremini  mushrooms and sweet bell peppers.  Fresh thyme, oregano, and parsley rounded out the sauce flavors, along with some salt and pepper.

"green" garlic isn't really green -- it simply hasn't dried out yet --

the farmer from Red Fern farm gave me some uncured garlic --

she grows six different varieties

I sauteed the garlic, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, then added chopped, fresh, local tomatoes.   I also added some dried wild mushrooms hydrated in a bit of water, for a little interest.  I wanted some body in the sauce, so I went to the fridge for tomato paste, and didn't have any.  No worries.  I hydrated some sun-dried tomatoes in a little hot water, and ground them to a paste in a blender.  Last in the pot -- a bit of chopped thyme, oregano, and parsley from the garden.

a couple tablespoons of cream enriched the vegetable-laden sauce

I put the finished sauce in a bowl, and rinsed out the pan to make the white sauce.  No sense in making more of a mess than necessary.  A white sauce is a simple affair.  Equal parts butter and flour, cooked into a paste.  I used about four tablespoons each, and cooked them together for about five minutes.  I added salt, pepper, and some freshly grated nutmeg, then slowly added about 3 cups of milk I had heated in the microwave.  Once all of the milk was incorporated, and the sauce was smooth, I added about one and one half cups of grated Parmesan I had in the fridge.  

From there, it was simply assembly time.  I am a huge fan of Barilla's "no boil" lasagna noodles.  No pre-cooking necessary, and the baked noodles taste very similar to home-made pasta.  A layer of tomato sauce to prevent sticking in the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles, another layer of tomato sauce, a layer of white sauce (bechamel), noodles, tomato sauce, bechamel, noodles, sauce, bechamel.... you get the picture.  Once the casserole dish was full, I topped it off with a bit of grated mozzarella and my last bit of grated parm, covered it with foil, and baked it for about 45 minutes.

one of the things I love about lasagna -- nearly all of the kitchen

cleanup can be done while it bakes

Forty-five minutes in the oven, another twenty minutes without foil, and a ten minute rest out of the oven produces a perfectly golden dish of cheesy goodness.  You can certainly add meat, but in this case, I didn't think it was necessary.  A bowl of crisp salad, some crunchy grilled garlic bread...  Yum...