Light But Luxurious Lasagne Recipes

Steps:

• Drain soaked mushrooms and then mince. Reserve soaking liquid but strain it through a cheesecloth lined sieve. First make the cream sauce: Heat 4 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy stainless saucepan. When foaming subsides, add the flour and stir continuously with a wooden spoon. Cook for 2 minutes over low heat. Whisk in the reserved mushroom juices and heavy cream and whisk until smooth. Simmer 5 minutes or until velvety and season to taste with salt pepper and nutmeg. Reserve until later. Now make the filling: In a large skillet heat remaining 3 tablespoons of butter along with the olive oil. Add the fresh mushrooms and garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the minced soaked mushrooms, prosciutto and saute a moment. Add the wine and evaporate for a minute or two. Lower the heat and cook, covered until the mushrooms are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Cut the pasta sheets into strips 3 to 4 inches wide and long enough to fit into your gratin or baking dish. Boil a few sheets at a time until 3/4 done. Drain and cool on clean cloths. To assemble: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a gratin dish. Cover with a layer of lasagne. Top with 1/4 of cream sauce, 1/4 of Parmesan and 1/3 of mushroom mix. Continue with pasta, sauce, cheese, mushrooms for 2 more layers, finishing with a sheet of pasta. Drizzle any liquid left in mushroom pan over the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Mix the spinach, cottage cheese, and egg in a large bowl.
• Place a large skillet over medium-high heat, and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Cook the onion, garlic, mushrooms, and carrot until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the ground turkey, and stir until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Pour the pasta sauce and water into the skillet. Season with rosemary,oregano, and basil. Simmer sauce for 10 minutes.
• Spray a 9x13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of the pan, and top with 3 noodles. Spoon an additional 1/3 of the sauce on the noodles; top with the spinach mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese. Top with remaining 3 noodles and the rest of the sauce. Pour the vegetable juice evenly over the lasagna, and top with the remaining mozzarella. Cover the dish with foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let lasagna rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Steps:

• Put the porcini mushrooms, marsala, and water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, then take off the heat and scissor the softened mushrooms into smaller pieces.
• Warm the oil in a heavy-based saucepan with a lid, and finely chop the onion, carrot, and celery either by hand or in a processor and scrape them into the pan.
• Let the vegetables soften over a gentle heat for about 5 minutes or so, then stir in the thyme and salt.
• Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a fork, and let it brown a little. Then stir in the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and bay leaf.
• Add the porcini mushrooms with their dark, gorgeously flavored liquid and bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Once the sauce is bubbling, put the lid on, turn the heat down to very low, and leave to simmer gently for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you're using a wide pan, the shorter time should be enough; if the sauce is piled up higher, you'll probably need the full hour.
• While the sauce is simmering, make the polenta layers. First dampen your chosen pans 13x9x2 by letting some water from the cold tap splash them a bit.
• Make up the polenta in a saucepan following the package instructions, but first dissolve a chicken bouillon cube in the specified amount of water, or use chicken broth instead of water.Stir as instructed with your wooden spoon, and when the polenta has thickened, add, beating as you go, the tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of Parmesan. Taste to see if you want any more seasoning. Once the polenta is thick and coming away from the sides of the saucepan, quickly divide it between the damp pans, spreading each one to an even as possible layer using a silicone spatula you've passed under a cold tap. It will set almost instantly. You can put aside these polenta layers and your meat sauce for now.
• When you are ready to assemble the lasagne, preheat the oven to 400°F Using 1 polenta-lined pan as your dish, spoon half of the meat sauce over the polenta.
• Deftly tip out (it's not hard) one of the other polenta layers and place this over the meat sauce in the pan you're working on and then add the last half of meat sauce.
• Top with the final layer of polenta from the third pan, then sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of Parmesan cheese over the top.
• Bake for 1 hour if your meat sauce was cold, and about 45 minutes if it was still warm. The cheese should have melted and become slightly golden, and the lasagne must be piping hot right through.
• Tips.
• Make ahead note: The lasagne can be made and assembled 2 days ahead. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate. Bake as directed in the recipe; however, the refrigerator-cold lasagne may need extra 10-20 minutes' cooking time, and check the lasagne is piping hot in the center.
• Freeze note: The assembled lasagne can be frozen, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 3 months. Thaw for 24 hours in the refrigerator then bake as above.

Steps:

• cook meat in a large saucepan over medium heat untilbrowned, stirring to crumble; drain and set aside. Wipe pan with a paper towel.
• Coat pan with cooking spray; add onion and garlic, and saute for 5 minutes. Return meat to pan.
• Add 2 tablespoons parsley and next seven ingredients; bring to boil. Cover reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Uncover; simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Combine 2 tablespoons parsley, cottage cheese and next 3 ingredients on a large bowl; stir well, and set aside.
• Spread 3/4 cup tomato mixture in bottom of a 13x9 pan coated with cooking spray.
• Arrange 4 noodles over tomato mixture; top with half of cottage cheese mixture, 2 1/4 cups tomato mixture, and 2/3 cup provolone.
• Repeat layers ending with noodles. spread remaining tomato mixture over noodles. cover, bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
• Sprinkle with remaining provolone; bake, uncovered, for ten minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with oregano, if deisred.

Steps:

• Heat up a big saucepan and add the olive oil. Sweat the onion, celery, carrot and garlic for around five minutes over a medium heat.
• Heat a frying pan up until very hot and cook the seasoned beef, without any oil, in batches. Then add the beef to the saucepan.
• The point of cooking the beef in batches is to get a good colour on it because this adds more flavour.
• When all the beef is in the saucepan, turn up the heat and add the wine.
• Cook until the wine has all been absorbed and then add the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, bay leaf and oregano. Season and simmer for 30 minutes or until rich and tasty.
• Preheat a conventional oven to 180ºC, or a fan-assisted one to 160ºC.
• Heat a griddle pan. Season the courgettes and lightly chargrill or sear on each side, then leave on a plate until assembling time. Drain the peppers and also add to the plate.
• For the cheese sauce: heat the milk up gently with a good grating of nutmeg, some salt and pepper. Mix the cornflour with 50ml of the milk and whisk back into the milk, continuing to cook for two to three minutes until thickened.
• Add the mustard and half the cheese. Check the seasoning and set aside.
• Now for the fun part: Take a baking dish and start layering up the ingredients. Start with a layer of meat, then peppers, then meat, then courgettes, then meat, then pasta and finally cheese sauce.
• Top with the rest of the cheese and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until bubbling.