Saturday 28 January 2012

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne



Well, well well. After STUPIDLY committing myself to “Soup of the Week” (see last entry), it all went down hill fast. There haven’t been any notable problems: I still have a home and an internet connection and a laptop and a brain and so there is no good reason why I have not updated since fucking OCTOBER.

I promise to never, ever promise about doing anything ever again. It just leads to disaster, in all of life’s departments. Here’s to a new year, a new start and a free and easy non-committal approach to blogging.

Talking about new starts, let’s talk resolutions. Unlike most people, I am actually alright at sticking to new years resolutions. They’re never anything too major, usually just read more (I did), eat less bread (I do), stop being lazy and do revision (I did and got a degree!).

However, this year, I have gone ALL OUT. I have become a vegetarian. There are various reasons behind this but I’m fearful of going into them because so many people get very upset and defensive about people who have become vegetarian. Instead, I’ll just tell you that I read a lot about meat and fish production and decided that it wasn’t for me.

So, in light of the above, my blog about food is going to harbour certain obvious limitations. Who knows how long this will last; as Soup of the Week-gate has proven, it is silly to boast about anything being forever. All I will say is that I am currently, at the moment, presently a vegetarian and here is a delightful recipe that a vegetarian or anyone…except a vegan…can eat.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

Ingredients
  • 3 red peppers
  • 2 aubergine
  • 3 large mushrooms (not on the official recipe but I like it)
  • 8 tbsp olive oil , plus a little for greasing
  • ½ quantity tomato sauce (see link to main site)
  • 300g fresh pack lasagne sheets
  • ½ quantity white sauce (see link to main site)
  • 125g ball mozzarella
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Deseed the peppers, halve, then cut into large chunks. Trim ends off aubergines, then cut into slices about ½cm thick. Lightly grease 2 large baking trays, then place peppers and aubergines on top. Toss with the olive oil, season well, then roast for 25 mins until lightly browned.

Reduce oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Lightly oil an ovenproof serving dish (30 x 20cm). Arrange a layer of the vegetables on the bottom, then pour over a third of the tomato sauce. Top with a layer of lasagne, then drizzle over a quarter of the white sauce. Repeat until you have 3 layers of pasta.
To finish, spoon remaining white sauce over the pasta, making sure the whole surface is covered. Scatter mozzarella. Bake for 45 mins until bubbling and golden.

The full recipe can be found here: BBC Good Food.

A few notes:

1. The tomato sauce (which you can find on the main BBC Good Food site) is exceptional. It's like a soup. A really good soup. However, like making a homemade soup, it does take a bit of time. Therefore, I recommend making a batch of this stuff, to be frozen and used at a later date.

2. Aubergines are my new "thing". They really are great, for many reasons. Firstly, they are easy as hell. Most vegetables that are aubergine-sized, like butternut squash, are nightmarish to cut up and peel. The great thing about aubergines is that the seeds are ok to eat and you can eat the skin! Like a healthy potato perhaps. Secondly, they soak up flavours like nothing else, meaning they taste bloody good.

3. I was telling my Mum all about this recipe and so she made it for my Dad. It didn't go down well because my Dad missed the meat. Therefore, if you really are a fully fledged carnivore, this might not be the right blog for you anymore.
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