Vegetable Lasagne
This indulgent Vegetable Lasagne is layered with colourful Mediterranean veg, rich tomato sauce & cheese. Perfect for make-ahead entertaining!Before you startPrep time does not include the time taken to make Tomato & Basil Sauce (about 90 minutes). The sautéing of the veg slices takes some time (about 30 minutes). This is assuming you have two frying pans on the go. It will take twice as long if you don't. You’ll need to be constantly checking, flipping, adding and removing slices to a plate as you go; make sure you can stay close to the stove.
Servings: 6
Equipment
- Baking dish, rectangular, roughly 30x20cm
Ingredients
- Two serves of Tomato & Basil Sauce (or 800ml any good quality pizza/pasta sauce)
- 2 eggplant/aubergine about 700g
- 450 g zucchini/courgette approx. 2-3
- small wedge pumpkin about 300g once peeled
- 250 ml olive oil
- 250 g mozzarella
- 100 g parmesan
- 5 layers lasagne (the number will depend on the size of the sheets and baking dish (note))
Instructions
- Slice Veg – thinly slice the zucchini, eggplant and (peeled) pumpkin.2 eggplant/aubergine450 g zucchini/courgettesmall wedge pumpkin
- Sauté Veg - brush the sliced veg with olive oil on both sides and soften/brown in a pre-heated frying pan. You can oil the slices as you go. You’ll need to frequently tend to the cooking slices and stay close to the stove top.250 ml olive oil
- Preheat Oven - to 180°C
- Build Layers – assemble the layers in a baking dish. Start with a layer of one type of veg. Follow with both types of cheese, some freshly ground black pepper, tomato sauce and a layer of lasagna. I’ve allowed for two layers of zucchini, one layer of pumpkin and three layers of eggplant. We finish with a layer of eggplant and cheeses. See the notes below if you want me to tell you exactly how I do mine.250 g mozzarella100 g parmesan5 layers lasagneTwo serves of Tomato & Basil Sauce
- Cover & Bake - cover the finished lasagne with a sheet of baking paper (you’ll lose half the cheese otherwise), then cover with foil). Cook for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and foil layers. Bake (uncovered) for another 20 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the top is nicely browned.
- Rest (important!) - leave to sit for 10 minutes before serving up. The resting time is important to allow the lasagna to 'settle'. It will be much easier to portion neatly, and will taste better too.
Notes
Fresh or dried lasagne? Either is fine. It will be the same cook time. The advantage of fresh is that you can more easily trim the sheets to fit your dish exactly. If you want to trim dried sheets, place them in a large dish filled with hot water until they're soft enough to cut through without shattering. Don’t be tempted to soften too many sheets at once; they’ll stick together.
You could always sort out your layers before you start building the lasagna. Divide:
eggplant slices - into 3 portions
pumpkin - one layer only; no need to divide
zucchini slices - into 2 portions
grated mozzarella - into 6 portions*
grated parmesan - into 6 portions*
*Actually… make one pile of each type of cheese (for the last layer, the very top) a bit bigger than the rest. Cheesy tops are the best.
I keep my bowl of tomato sauce on weighing scales and remove a fifth of a portion each layer (there are five layers of sauce). You need to know the starting weight of the tomato sauce. Divide this by five to get the weight per layer. Put the container of tomato sauce on weighing scales, tare (zero), and scoop out enough so that the minus value on the scales shows the weight we need per layer. Too hard? Just approximate. It doesn't really matter if the layers aren't even 😆
This is how I layer my lasagne (feel free to completely ignore this and do your own thing):
- (bottom layer) Eggplant, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Zucchini, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Pumpkin, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Eggplant, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- Zucchini, both cheeses, freshly grated black pepper, tomato sauce, lasagna.
- (top layer) Eggplant and both cheeses.