Jorge went up to Scotland for a long weekend so I had the flat to myself for three nights. Who wants to cook for one every night? So I decided to make lasagne to last me through the time he was away! This is the second time I made this recipe for Spinach Feta Lasagne which I found through A Merry Mishap. I’m not a vegetarian by any means, but this is just as tasty without meat.
Ingredients:
- 600g Spinach
- 1 Leek
- Salt
- Black pepper
- A few pinches of ground nutmeg
- 1 400-500 g / 14-18 oz can tomato sauce (I used the parmesan flavoured one)
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 1/2 cup / 4 oz shredded Swiss cheese (or cheese of preference…gruyere, cheddar…)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 12 no-boil lasagna sheets
- 75 g / 3 oz feta cheese
Set oven to 225 C / 425 F.
Chop up the leek first and cook on medium high heat in a large frying pan or wok.
(How to cut a leek: I had no idea how to go about this so I googled it, of course. First, cut off the very end with the dark green. You can use this in another recipe if you want to hang on to it for stock or something. Never cut off the white end till last. Starting with the knife close to that end, slice it lengthways in half, then in half again and then in quarters. Then chop it into small bits going the other direction.)
Add in the spinach. I did this a few handfuls at a time so it had time to shrink down. You can add a little splash of water from the kettle to speed it up a bit.
Next come the spices. Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. The recipe recommends “two pinches” of nutmeg, but I put at least double that in mine.
Then mix it all up and stir in the sauce.
Let it cook for a few minutes and then you can set it aside while you work on the cheese sauce. You’ll need a small saucepan on low heat. Melt the two tablespoons of butter and then whisk in the flour until it’s smooth. Stir it constantly for a minute or so.
Turn up the heat to medium and stir in the milk. Whisk it continuously until it is thick and bubbly. This can take about 10 minutes. Then mix in the parmesan and swiss cheeses.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Now the fun part – layering! The original recipe didn’t saw which size pan to use, but an 8×8 or 9×9 size seems to work well. Start with a layer of the spinach sauce, add a layer of cheese, then the lasagne sheets.
Carry on this way until you’ve used all of your spinach and cheese. You’ll want to end in a layer of cheese.
On the top, crumble your feta cheese.
Pop it into the oven for about 20-25 minutes, depending on how brown you like it on top. Take it out and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
The parsley’s just for decoration, but fun if you’re serving it for someone else!
Enjoy!
PS – I created a new page on the blog to keep track of recipes so they’re easier to find!
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