Very Yummy Vegetarian Lasagna

I've made a variety of lasagne in my lifetime, but this version seems to be the favourite. My husband gobbled up two large servings, which isn't saying much because he loves lasagna, but still he really liked it. My toddler ate a large serving and wanted more afterwards, but she also loves pasta. I thought it was really good as well. But I think the true test is that my mother loved it (as leftovers for dinner the next day) and asked for some to take for lunch. I was raised on my mother's cooking - homemade Italian - and I was spoiled. And she learned from my nonna, who also makes amazing food. She would make me frozen trays of lasagna and other yummies to take with me while I was in university. So when my mother said she thought my lasagna was amazing and asked for more to take for lunch - I was so proud of my lasagna. My mom's lasagna is excellent so for her to give me that compliment was out of this world. And saying it was amazing wasn't the compliment because she's mom and would say that for almost anything I did. The compliment was asking to take some for lunch! Hopefully you will enjoy this recipe as well. I tried to be as accurate as I could with the measurements, but a lot of my cooking is by eye.

Ingredients:

1 pkg oven ready lasagna (or if it's not oven ready, follow directions to cook it)

2 jars of tomato sauce (see note below)

3 - 3-1/2 cups besciamellla sauce (see recipe below)

2 pkg (300g each) ricotta cheese

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed out

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for layering

1 cup mozzarella, grated

Directions:

1. Mix together ricotta, spinach and eggs in a medium bowl. Add Parmesan and mix again.

2. Set up your layers in front of you so it is easy to assemble the lasagna in a large, deep casserole dish (approx. 9x12")

3. Start by placing enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the tray. Add about 1/3 of besciamella and mix the sauces together. Place a layer of lasagna sheets to cover the bottom, overlapping slightly. Place more tomato sauce to cover the layer, and add another 1/3 besciamella, mixing again if you wish. Spoon almost half of the ricotta-spinach mixture and spread across. Sprinkle the top with about half of the grated mozzarella and and sprinkling of more Parmesan.

3. You can put a little more tomato sauce on top if you like, but it is not necessary. Place another layer of the lasagna sheets, as you did before. (If you are using fresh pasta or ones you just boiled, you might want to layer this time in the opposite way you did - like a cross pattern - to help the lasagna hold together. This is not necessary, and is something I did not do.)

4. Continue as before, with a layer of the tomato sauce and remainder of the besciamella, followed by the ricotta-spinach, then Parmesan and mozzarella. Place a little more sauce over top and continue onto your last layer of the lasagna sheets. Spread the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Make sure the sauce is completely covering all the pasta or else it will dry out while it bakes.

5. Cover with foil and bake in a 375F oven for 45-60 minutes, until it is cooked through and bubbling. You can remove the foil for the last 10 minutes. You may also want to put a large baking sheet under the dish as you bake it to prevent any spillover from the lasagna.

6. You could also put the dish in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. If you do this, take it out of the fridge while you preheat the oven so the dish isn't too cold when it goes in the oven.

Tomato Sauce:

I'm very fortunate that my family jars its own tomato sauce, so this is my go to. This still takes some preparation. I saute an onion with 2 cloves of garlic and 1 carrot until softened. I add two jars (the large mason jars - I think they are approx. 1 L each) of the sauce. I also add basil, oregano, bay leaves, salt and pepper. I let it simmer at least 30 minutes, but even as long as 2 hours to really deepen the flavours. In the past I've added mushrooms and red peppers to the sauce with the other vegetables. If you don't like a chunky sauce, you could use an immersion blender to puree it, otherwise you could use it as it is. This is what I use in my lasagna.

Besciamella Sauce (Bechamel Sauce)

3 tbsp (unsalted) butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk (whole milk is better), warmed (I warm it in the microwave for a couple of minutes)

1/2 tsp salt, to taste

pinch of black pepper

pinch of nutmeg

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Let the flour cook for another couple of minutes, whisking. Addd the warm milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. This should take about 10 minutes, and the sauce should be smooth and creamy. Do not let the sauce boil. Remove from heat and stir in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.

What I tend to do when I use this for lasagna, is add a few tbsp of the tomato sauce to the besciamella and give it a stir. It will give it a rosy colour. This is also not necessary as you can mix the two sauces together in the lasagna tray.