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Lasagna Verde with roasted vegetables and tomato-mushroom sauce

If there is one country I want to visit, it is Italy. For its wine, its food and the culture. La Cucina Italiana...I find beauty in this food. The vibrant colours, flavours that burst in your mouth tantalizing your taste buds, the freshness of simple ingredients like a raw tomato, fresh mozzarella c

Ingredients
  

The components

  • 9 lasagna Around sheets of
  • Tomato Sauce
  • Cheese Grated ( I used Britannia's Pizza cheese)

Making the tomato sauce

  • 8 tomatoes large
  • 5 - 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion medium
  • 1 cup button mushrooms finely sliced
  • Salt
  • Handful basil fresh leaves , finely sliced
  • 1/4 cup red wine (optional)

For the roasted vegetables

  • 1 eggplant medium
  • 2 red bell peppers large

Instructions
 

  • Place 2 litres of water in a 4L pot. Bring to a boil. Slit crosses on top of tomatoes and gently put them in boiling water. Once the water comes back to a boil, switch off the flame and cover for 5 minutes. Fish out the tomatoes from hot water at the end of 5 minutes, place it in a bowl to get cool. Peel the skins, finely chop and keep aside.
  • In a large wok, heat 1 tbsp olive oil on a low flame. Before oil gets hot, throw in finely chopped garlic cloves and finely chopped onion. Saute on a medium flame for 4-5 minutes, before adding finely sliced mushrooms. Add 1/4 tsp of sea salt, 1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper, any fresh herbs of your choice (I've used fresh basil) and saute till the mushrooms and onions are soft.
  • At this stage add the finely chopped tomatoes kept aside from earlier step. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a simmer. Add red wine and allow to simmer for 5-7 minutes until it all comes together like a sauce. Check for seasoning and adjust as per your liking. If you find this a little too sour, add a fat pinch of sugar and boil it till sugar dissolves (around 2 minutes). Remove the sauce into a bowl and keep it aside.
  • For the roasted vegetables
  • Slice the eggplant into 1 cm thick slices. Toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/4 tsp of sea salt. Arrange on a greased foil lining a baking sheet.
  • Bake at 180 C for 25-30 minutes, until soft.
  • Slice the red bell peppers (1/2" width), toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, sprinkle a pinch of salt and bake similar to the eggplant, until soft but not mushy (around 20 minutes).
  • Grated Cheese.
  • Place the block of cheese in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Grease the grater with fingers dipped in olive oil. Grate up to one cup cheese and keep aside. Mozzarella or Cheddar or a mix of both, is fine.
  • Assembling
  • Lightly grease a 9X4 or 9 X5 ovenproof pan (glass or tin). Spread 2-3 tbsp of tomato sauce at the bottom with 2 tbsp of water and keep asid.e
  • Bring a large wide pan of water to boil. Add a fat pinch of salt to this. Keep the lasagna sheets ready.
  • When the water starts to boil, dip the lasagna sheets in boiling water, one at a time for 2 minutes each. Remove and do the first layer in the baking pan, two sheets length wise side by side and one cut to size to place horizontally where the pan is exposed.
  • Cover this layer with 1/4rd of the sauce and 1/4 th of the cheese. Sprinkle some dried / fresh herbs, freshly ground black pepper over this.
  • Boil 3 more lasagna sheets, one by one and layer on top of this as explained above.
  • Cover with a layer of roasted vegetables and 1/4th of the sauce thinly spread in the gaps.
  • Boil the last three lasagna sheets, layer as explained above.
  • Pour all of the remaining sauce, any vegetables left over from the previous layer, all the remaining cheese, fresh herbs and some black pepper.
  • This can be covered and kept aside for a while if you have made this ahead of serving.
  • Otherwise, place the baking pan in a preheated oven at 180C. Bake for 30 minutes until the pasta is cooked through and cheese melted.
  • Cut into 6 servings and serve hot with a light salad on the side.

Notes

Food Shopping
Lasagna sheets are available in most supermarkets, or you can try and make your own by making pasta dough, rolling it out into thin rotis and cutting them to fit the shape of your pan.
Herbs, both fresh and dried are available at most supermarkets. Keya's or Fabindia for dried herbs and Namdhari's for fresh are my personal preference.
(c) Nandita Iyer 2006-2015