Red or Green?

 

The good thing is that everybody in our family likes lasagne. The bad thing is that not everybody likes every sort of lasagne. And to be more specific, there is exactly one somebody* who does not like exactly one sort** of lasagne at all and simply refuses to eat it, which is making my life a bit miserable.  See,exactly that one sort happens to be exactly my favorite...

Anyway, normally I cook things that everybody is eating - and I wait for vacation when my kids are gone and when for a few weeks I can be cooking all the things that we (me and my husband) like and they (my son and my daughter) would rather not see on the table. But sometimes it happens that for one reason or another I prepare two different dishes at one time. Then everybody is happy, at least for a while.

* my son

** spinach lasagne, of course (actually, the guy doesn't like spinach in any form at all)

 

Sauce for Red Lasagne with Meat and Vegetables

(for a 35x25cm pan)

4 tablespoons olive oil

500g ground meat (beef or pork-beef)

8 big garlic cloves

2 medium onions

2 medium carrots

2 red peppers

1 small zucchini

1 medium (young) eggplant

3 to 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1l good and thick tomato paste

salt, pepper, basil to taste

for white sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1l milk

salt pepper and nutmeg to taste

grated cheese of your favorite kind

Prepare the vegetables: peel them, de-seed the peppers and (if needed) the eggplant. 

Slice finely 4 garlic cloves, the other 4 chop very finely (but do not press).

Cut all the vegetables finely - the finer you cut them, the better the sauce will be.

Heat olive oil in a big pot, put in the sliced garlic and let it fry for about a minute, then add the meat and fry it, stirring occasionally,  until nicely browned. 

Add the onions and fry 2-3 minutes more, stirring from time to time. Now add the rest of vegetables except for the remaining garlic, pour in balsamic vinegar and cook everything until the carrots are just starting to be getting tender - again, don't forget about stirring. When the carrots are at the right stage add tomato paste, salt, pepper and basil to taste and let everything cook for 2-3 more minutes (stirring again). 

Set the pan aside but don't forget about it - you still will have to add the remaining garlic. I do this when the sauce is still very warm, but not hot anymore. After adding the garlic you are done with the red sauce - or actually red stuffing, since what you have in the pot should be quite thick.

Stuffing for Green Lasagne with Spinach and Goat Cheese

(for a 20x30cm pan)

1kg frozen spinach (leaves)

250g goat chese (I use Chavroux)

4 big garlic cloves

2 tablespoons butter

salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

for white sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

3/4 l milk

salt pepper and nutmeg to taste

grated cheese of your favorite kind

Thaw the  spinach on a sieve, then press it with a paper towel to get rid of excess water.
Heat butter in a pan, put in the spinach and cook it for 5 minutes, not more. Stir in the cheese, cook for another minute then turn off the heat. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste and voila! Your stuffing is ready.

Now, having the stuffing ready you need to prepare the white sauce, which is really easy. 

First, you need to heat butter in a pan - just heat, don't let it brown. Add flour and whisk it with butter so that you end up with a smooth mixture. Let it bubble for a minute or so, whisking or stirring constantly to make sure it does not burn or even get brown. Then you quickly pour in cold milk and bring everything to boiling not giving up the stirring. The sauce should be quite thick - if it is too thin you just let it boil for a couple minutes. Turn the heat off and add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste and you are done.

Now comes the final part - it is same for both kinds of today's lasagne.
Pour some white sauce into the baking pan - just enough to cover the bottom. Then arrange the first layer of lasagne leaves, you can do it as you like (I like when the leaves overlap each other a bit, so that at the end I get something in between a single and a double layer).
Spread about 1/3 of the stuffing over the leaves, then pour some white sauce and spread it over the stuffing, cover it with a layer of lasagne leaves again. You repeat it two more times - and at this point you should be left with enough white sauce to nicely cover the top layer of leaves. The last thing to do is spread cheese on top of everything - be generous. About 1cm thick layer will give your lasagne a nice and crispy crust.
Put the baking pan into a preheated oven (180ºC) for about 40 minutes or until the top is bubbly and nicely browned. Get the pan out of the oven and let it stand 10-15 minutes before serving to let the layers set.