Mushroom Lasagna

This is officially turning into a mushroom blog - a blog for mushroom lovers it is. Is there such a thing? After having a go at Yotam Ottolenghi's mushroom lasagna recipe from the Guardian weekend magazine I couldn't help myself - an experiment was on the horizon. I read Yotam's and it sounded great but evening reading about that amount of cheese gave me the heart-attack jitters.

This one has a few changes, mainly less cheese, multiple layers, and the addition of a gorgeous mushroom bechamel sauce using the juices from the mushrooms instead of the plain old white one.

It adds to the dish giving it plenty of flavour and it worked as a great substitute for my dialing down of the cheese content. This one is a much more mushroom-y kind of lasagna.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 shallots
3 garlic cloves
approx 600g mixed mushrooms
Half teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional to go in with the mushrooms)
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon thyme
1 un-waxed lemon, zest and juice
125g Mozzarella
2 eggs
125g Mascarpone
200g feta
300g pack fresh lasagna sheets

extra cheese for grating on top (either cheddar or parmesan)

Mushroom béchamel sauce:
(Save the juice from the mushrooms after cooking)
30g plain flour
30g butter
350ml milk
Salt and pepper

Cooking time: 45 minutes preparation and 40 minutes cooking.
You also need an oven proof dish for the lasagna, approximate size 25 x 20cm.

Chop the shallots, garlic, and mushrooms. Shred the herbs from the sprigs and chop their leaves finely.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the shallots, garlic, herbs, (chilli flakes if you are using them) and the juice and zest of half the lemon and cook on a medium hear for 5 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, cook for approximately 15 minutes until all the mushrooms give up their juices.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C / 356 F and boil a full kettle of water for the pasta sheets.

Drain the mushrooms. Place the sieve over a bowl and retain their juices. The pan from the mushrooms should be clear, no need to rinse, fill with water from the kettle and add half a teaspoon of salt. Lay out a clean tea-towel before you start to dry the sheets on. Lay a couple of lasagna sheets at time in the boiling water for about 1 minute then spread them out to dry on to the towel.

Get a small pan on the hob over a low heat and melt the butter. Once melted add the flour and stir well with either a silicone or wooden spoon, until you get a paste. Add the mushroom liquid and the milk a little bit at a time; stirring continuously until you get a thick creamy, mushroom coloured béchamel sauce. Season well and keep on a low heat on the hob.

Crack the eggs in to a bowl and stir in the mascarpone, 150g of feta and some seasoning. Give these a good stir together.

In the oven proof dish add a couple of dessert spoons of the egg and cheese mixture, two spoons of the mushroom mix, a couple of tears of mozzarella and a large tablespoon of the béchamel sauce.

Add two lasagna sheets side by side, this should be enough to cover one whole layer of the dish as the fresh lasagna sheets are quite big.

Repeat whilst slightly increasing the amount of mixture you add into each layer, so you end up with heavier layers on the top. The weight will flatten the whole thing out whilst baking.

You should end up with about 8 layers. The idea being more layers with less in-between and it creates a real good texture to the dish rather than a lot of slop in 2 or 3 layers. Retain quite a bit of bechamel sauce for your last layer to cover the whole top of the dish.

Finish with a layer of lasagna sheets covered with just béchamel sauce. Grate a few handfuls of extra cheese on top (either Parmesan or cheddar or whatever cheese you have left) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Take out and leave to rest for 5 minutes and serve with a simple green salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.

Serves 4 people