Lasagne, how can you go wrong? Layers of rich meaty sauce
with creamy béchamel and spicy tomato topped with a cheesy crust. Bless the cook
that invented this wickedly wonderful food.
The only trouble is, it takes an age to make from scratch
and therefore only eaten after kitchen goddess-like inspiration that, let’s face
it, does not happen that often. Or, it’s shop-bought and never really enjoyed as much as if you had made it yourself.
So, I’ve come up with a few ideas to save time as well as
some other tasty options.
Time-saver:
When you make your mince, make double or more. Freeze the
rest in batches for the next time you make it. Try my easy recipe.
Buy in the tomato sauce – there are loads of really great pasta sauces to
choose from and not too pricey either.
You can also go as far as to buy in the béchamel or cheese sauce and pre-grated
cheese. It can start getting pricey though. Try my super-quick and simple béchamel sauce.
With all the bits, it takes a mere 15 minutes to layer it all together and pop
it in the oven.
Veggie heaven:
This is also a great time-saver option. Buy pre-chopped
butternut and pop in the oven to roast.
In the meantime make a quick creamed spinach.
Layer it all together with bought-in rich tomato pasta sauce
and you’re done.
Fancy:
This is actually the easiest one! You might have come across
it in a restaurant – an open lasagna.
It’s basically all the ingredients and pre-cooked lasagna sheets layered
loosely on a plate and garnished. So simple
and you can play with all sorts of different fillings.
Try this one:
Chicken and sun-dried tomato open lasagne with goats cheese:
Serves 2
4 lasagne sheets
1 chicken breast
1 pot bought basil pesto
6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil
1 roll goats cheese
1 couple of sprigs of basil
Cut the chicken breast into strips and pan-fry in a little
butter. When they are just done, toss them in a large tablespoon of pesto. Keep
warm in a low oven.
Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into strips and mix with ½ the goats cheese. Pop in
the oven to warm.
In a pot of boiling water, cook the lasagna sheets and lay onto a baking tray.
Cut them in half.
Start layering. Start with one lasagna sheet, then the goats cheese mixture,
another sheet, then the chicken mixture and then the last sheet. Top with the
rest of the goats cheese which you have sliced into discs. Place under a grill
for a minute until it starts to brown.
Top with a teaspoon of pesto, garnish with the basil leaves
and there you have it, a really lovely dinner party dish to impress.