From My Kitchen

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think I might actually prefer this lasagne to the normal meaty version that I make, it’s really that yummy. As with all lasagnes (lasagni?) it takes a while to make, but it’s deffo worth taking the time to infuse the milk before making the béchamel. If you can get your hands on lasagne verdi then do! The more green the better. Serves 6.

Ingredients

250g lasagne sheets

600ml milk

2 onions, diced

1 tsp black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

100g butter

90g plain flour

200ml double cream

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tbsp olive oil

500g leeks

500g courgettes

5 cloves garlic

25g fresh basil

500g spring greens/kale

250g ready to eat puy lentils

100g cheddar cheese

Method

1. Put the milk, one diced onion, the peppercorns and bay leaves in a saucepan, bring it to the boil then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
2. In the mean time, prepare your veg – halve the leeks lengthwise, wash well and slice into 5mm pieces, coarsely grate the courgettes, wash the spring greens and/or kale, remove the woody stems and shred into 1cm slices.
3. In a really large frying pan or saucepan, heat the oil and 20g of the butter. When melted, throw in the other diced onion and the leeks and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes until soft but not coloured.
4. Add in the grated courgettes, garlic and shredded basil, keep on stirring, and cook for another 10 minutes until the moisture that the courgettes produce has evaporated.
5. Add in the spring greens/kale and cook until wilted, around 5 minutes.
6. Finally stir in the cooked lentils, season well and put the whole thing to one side. Filling. Done. Tick.
7. Heat your oven to 180C.
8. Strain the infused milk through a sieve into a jug and discard the aromatics, their work is now done. Into the same saucepan add the final 80g butter and melt over a medium heat.
9. Tip in the flour and mix well until it comes together with the butter to make a roux. Keep mixing and cook out the flour for a couple of minutes.
10. Add in a slurp of the infused milk and keep mixing until incorporated, then add another slurp of milk and mix, and keep going until all of the milk is whisked in. Keep stirring for another couple of minutes until you have a thick white sauce.
11. Mix in the cream and nutmeg, season and remove from the heat.
12. Now it’s time to build your lasagne. Put a third of the filling in a 20x30cm (ish) lasagne dish and spread evenly, followed by a quarter of the bécamel and a layer of lasagne sheets.
13. Repeat twice more, then spread on the final quarter of béchamel and cover with grated cheese.
14. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Yum yum yum.