This is the kind of dish I whip up for an easy weekend night dinner, perfect for brightening up any Sunday evening blues. This is where I am most at home with cooking, a little different from the usual, but what a difference a little experimenting can make! Without the risk of sounding too ultra domesticated there is something so incredibly satisfying in whisking out a freshly baked dish from the oven to present at the table, with the lava like cheese topping just oozing and bubbling. The simplicity of just the one main dish ceremoniously placed in front of the children or good friends just creates a hub of warmth and it’s sometimes just the simplicity of two dishes that can make a meal feel like a feast.
Serve with one of the many Taste Safari salads and my comfort baked, cheese filled sunflower bloomer bread simply gorgeous home country cooking.
Pre- heat your oven to 180c
- In a large bowl mix the ricotta, the sun dried tomatoes, the garlic, the rock salt and the black pepper. Set aside.
- In a wide deep pan, pour 2 inches of boiling water and simmer on a high heat. Throw in your spinach and blanche for 1 min. Drain the spinach and add to the ricotta cheese mix and dispose of any left over water.
- In the same pan, heat 3 tbs of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes until hot, but not smoking. Add the bacon and cook until just beginning to crisp. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 4 minutes. Add this to the ricotta cheese mixture, including any juices in the pan. Stir well.
- Return pan to heat and add boiling water to half way up the pan with 3 “glugs'” of oil – heat until it reaches a boil.
- Slide your lasagne sheets in the boiling water for 4 minutes. Although a lot of brands claim they don’t require pre cooking, I prefer to give them a pre start and I find it just helps the texture of the whole dish overall. Keep in the pan.
To assemble the dish: This may include a bit of juggling so have everything close by.
- In a deep oven proof dish, pour in 1 ½ cups of the tomato sauce and spread evenly
- Direct from the pan place three lasagne sheets evenly, covering the passata.
- On top of this spread half the Ricotta mix evenly to cover the lasagne sheets.
- Again, place three lasagne sheets to evenly cover the mixture
- Now spread the remaining tomato sauce over the lasagne sheets.
- Add the remaining ricotta mix and spread evenly.
- Place the last 3 remaining lasagne sheets over this mixture.
- Pour the topping generously over the dish, allowing some of the cream to run through the entire dish. You can help this by creating little holes by poking a knife several times through the lasagne.
- Cover with foil and bake for at least 35 -40 minutes, and bake uncovered for 7 – 8 minutes before serving, allowing the cheese to melt and slightly crisp.
Quick Homemade Tomato Sauce for Lasagne:
All I do for the portions required for this recipe is to roughly chop up 12 large tomatoes, add 1 chopped white onion, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper, ½ chicken stock cube, 1 tsp sugar and 3 cups water. Boil this all together over a medium heat, stirring occasionally for at least 45 minutes. As the sauce cooks, I keep mashing up the tomatoes with a potato masher. If you find the chunks are still too big after 45 minutes and haven’t broken down, simply pulse them down in the blender. Super super easy and a guarantee go to sauce recipe for Lasagne!!
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