Covid-19. We are staying in as much as possible, and I am systematically going through the ingredients in the freezer, seeing how long we can stay in between shopping expeditions. The top shelf is now down to some cooked beetroot (we’ll have to find something to do with that later)
The second shelf had several half-tubs of ricotta cheese and quite a bit of spinach. This is such a good recipe, I didn’t have to think that hard about what I was going to make.
INGREDIENTS:
- 50g butter
- 40g plain white flour
- 600ml milk
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- another 50g butter
- 700g (approx) spinach
- 250g ricotta cheese
- 125g parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 cloves of garlic
- around 150g oven-ready lasagne sheets
METHOD:
- Make a bechamel sauce: Melt 50g butter in a small pan, and add 40g flour. Cook for a few minutes, so that the mixture is smooth and well-mixed.
- Slowly add the 1 pint of milk, stirring all the while. Add the bay leaf, and cook slowly, stirring, for ten minutes. The sauce should be thick and smooth.
- Remove the bayleaf, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Use a soup wand to make the sauce extra-creamy.
- Set the oven to 200C Gas 6. Grease a dish that measures 20cm by 30cm and around 6cm deep.
- In a very large pan, melt 50g butter and add the spinach. It might be a tight squeeze to get it all in, but it will cook down in about five minutes. You might need to squish it in with a spatula or spoon.
- Stir in the ricotta cheese, garlic, half the parmesan and a grate of nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
- Assemble the lasagne. The first layer is sheets of lasagne. Then around a quarter of the bechamel sauce, and then half the spinach. Next, a layer of lasagne, then another quarter of the bechamel and the rest of the spinach. Finally, another layer of lasagne, the rest of the bechamel, and then the rest of the parmesan.
- Bake in the oven for around 35 minutes. The top should be golden brown, and the pasta should be tender.