spinach and pesto lasagne
My sister is one of the best cooks I know. She can look at the pantry and come up with half a dozen different experimental and highly creative recipes according to what she has available and a little bit of whim.
I'm methodical, and I always need a starting point for something new. I'll find recipes that I like the look of, or I'll think of a meal I enjoyed in a restaurant or an ingredient I'm fixated on at the moment. But even though I rarely follow recipes properly and I'll often substitute ingredients or methods according to my tastes or what I have available, I do need something, an idea, to begin with.
My incredibly talented sister is a much more intuitive cook - I wish I could be more like her.
With this in mind, I found myself at the market a few weeks ago staring at a giant mound of spinach. Now I know spinach isn't very exciting, but it's one of those vegetables that I just don't use very often beyond a salad, or occasionally sautéed with a little sesame oil and bean sprouts, but something tickled my fancy that day and I started wondering whether I could make a spinach lasagna. I picked up some basil too - it just seemed like the right combination - and headed home to experiment.
It turns out that there are a million and one recipes out there for spinach lasagne - I glanced at a couple but decided to go with my instincts instead. It turned into a gooey, cheesy, basilly dish of deliciousness that I have made THREE times in the last three weeks. When I get obsessed about something, I tend to take it all the way, and there is something just so comforting about lasagne.
My beautiful, creative sister is celebrating a special birthday this week. I would love to be able to jump across the other side of the world and give her a birthday hug. And I reckon she'd love this lasagne. Anything created out of a whim and a desire to experiment would tickle her fancy.
- 50g butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 450ml milk
- 1 cup sharp cheddar, grated
- 2 generous bunches of basil, roughly chopped (about 8 branches)
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- handful of pine nuts
- pinch of salt & pepper
- 400g baby spinach, washed (or normal spinach leaves, roughly chopped)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (approximately)
- fresh lasagne sheets (or even fresh wonton wrappers!)
Makes six servings.
If you are not using fresh pasta sheets, you can just as easily use dry ones, but you'll either need to pre-cook them before using or cook the lasagne for longer on a lower heat. You can test the pasta is cooked through by sticking a skewer into the lasagne - if there is no resistance, it's ready!
- Make the bechamel sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan on a low heat. Add the flour and stir well until you have a paste. Let it simmer for thirty seconds. Over the next five minutes, slowly add the milk, half a cup at a time, whisking well each time you add the milk to make sure that no lumps form. Bring slowly to a boil, whisking regularly, then add half of the cheddar. Continue whisking until the cheese has melted then remove from the heat and set aside.
- Make a basic pesto by placing the basil, garlic, pine nuts, salt and pepper in food processor and blending for 30 seconds. Add olive oil gradually until a thick paste forms. Set aside.
- Heat a pot of water on the stove and prepare a bowl with ice cubes and water. Cook the spinach for 1 minute. Drain the spinach then plunge it immediately into the icy water. Leave for a minute or two then drain again and squeeze out any remaining water.
- Combine the spinach and pesto together.
- Brush a deep lasagne dish with oil (mine is about 25cm x 15cm, and about 9cm deep).
- Spread a small amount (about 1/5th or 1/6th) of the spinach and pesto mixture on the bottom of the dish, cover with some lasagne sheets, then spread a little of the bechamel over the top. Repeat this layering until you reach the top of the dish (or you have no ingredients left!), finishing with the bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with the rest of the grated cheese.
- Bake in a high oven until the cheese is bubbling and golden (20-30 minutes, give or take). Remove from the oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
My mum makes her bechamel sauce in the microwave and it works really well - there are never any lumps and it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan! You can just follow the same method I outlined above, removing it every thirty seconds or so from the microwave to stir it well.
Depending on how much bechamel sauce you spread on each layer, you may have some left over. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and is DELICIOUS when spread over some boiled cauliflower or broccoli, sprinkled with a little extra cheese and baked in the oven.
February 27, 2012 10:02 AM | Reply
Yummm! I love this homage to your sister. And I have seen so much LASAGNE on the internets the past few days, I need to make a pan stat!
February 27, 2012 10:07 AM | Reply
You forgot to mention that your sister is also a sexy sexy beast.
February 27, 2012 10:12 AM | Reply
Spinach, I continue to be astounded by your mastery of the keyboard despite the fact that you do not have opposing thumbs. Being a cat, and all.
And calling my sister a sexy sexy beast would be WRONG. :p
February 27, 2012 10:14 AM | Reply
Ann, lasagne is just the perfect dish for any season, and I love that it's something that reheats so well and can be gleefully eaten for several days.
February 29, 2012 5:00 PM | Reply
Your lasagna is just delicious looking. It reminds me of spring.
March 3, 2012 3:20 PM | Reply
Oh my, what a scrumptious lasagna! I prefer a vegetarian version of this wonder pasta dish and will be trying this recipe very soon. Spinach may not be very exciting but its so good for us and I love it!
March 4, 2012 5:27 PM | Reply
Wow- that looks AMAZING!
May 4, 2012 7:21 AM | Reply
Ann, your mention of wonton wrappers made me think that this could be a very clever little party dish - individual lasagnes the size of the wonton.
And of course served in a ramekin as they would ooze deliciously.
I wish I'd eaten breakfast before reading this. I shall go out to my garden and implore my baby spinach and teensy basil plants to grow, grow, grow.
May 4, 2012 7:33 AM | Reply
Sorry katia, I clicked through to you from my friend Ann Mah's website. So you might have been baffled by the comment. I'm enjoying your website. Especially as I am an Aussie living in France as well. But not Paris... It's la France profonde for me in the Ardeche. Best wishes
Lindy