SPINACH AND VEGETABLE LASAGNE

Spinach and vegetable Lasagne image

A good, hearty family recipe for everyone.

Provided by mr_ward2220

Time 1h30m

Yield Serves 6

Number Of Ingredients 18

Ingredients

450g washed spinach
250g roughly chopped asparagus
400g chopped broccoli
Roughly 16 dried lasagne sheets
2 large mozarella balls (about 250g)
1 medium onion finely diced
1 large carrot finely diced
350 halved cherry tomatoes
2 tins of 400g chopped tomatoes
2 celery sticks
Half tsp sugar
1 dessert spoon balsamic vinegar
1 crushed clove of garlic
850ml full fat milk
60g plain flour
75g butter
1 bay leaf
7 peppercorns

Steps:

Fry the onions, carrots, celery and cherry tomatoes in a little oil with the sugar and some salt and pepper until tender. Once tender add all the tinned tomatoes, garlic, balsamic vinegar and bay leaf and leave to simmer for 20 minutes occasionally stiring.
While the tomato sauce is steam the brocolli and asparagus until they are close to being cooked but still crunchy. Once they are ready, stir them into the tomato sauce for the last few minutes of the tomato sauces cooking time.
Meanwhile make the bechamel sauce using this method from the olive magazine recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7578/bchamel-sauce... this is listed in step 4 and 5:
Put the milk in a saucepan with the bay leaf and peppercorns and bring to a simmer. Strain into a jug and rinse the pan out. Put the pan back on the heat and gently melt the butter, stir in the flour (use a wooden spoon or mini whisk) and cook for 1 minute, don't let the butter or flour brown at all. Take the pan off the heat and add the milk in 3 stages. At each stage beat or whisk the milk into the flour until it is completely smooth.
Once the flour is all in, bring the mixture back up to a simmer, stirring all the time to stop any lumps forming. Once the mixture looks as if it won't thicken any more, simmer it for 5 minutes, stirring/whisking now and then, until it looks really glossy.
Take out about a quarter of the bechamel sauce and put it aside for the next step. Add the washed spinach to the remaining bechamel sauce and stir in.
Spread the tomato sauce across the bottom of a large baking dish. On top of the tomato sauce add about 8 sheets of lasagne to cover the sauce. On top of this spread out the spinach and bechamel mix evenly and then add another 8 sheets of lasagne to cover the mix. Take the bechamel sauce you put aside early and spread this over the lasagne sheets making sure that all the sheets have a thin layer of the sauce on to help cook the top layer of lasagne. break up the mozarella balls and spread over the top of the lasagne. Put in a preheated oven at 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown on top. Serve straight away and enjoy.