Honestly, comfort food is my favourite and autumn is the perfect time to indulge a little. This is my decadent white mushroom, spinach and ricotta lasagne!
INGREDIENTS
Lasagne:
Fresh egg lasagne
Mushrooms:
Chestnut mushrooms
Mixed oyster mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms
(Substitute this mix based on what is accessible to you / personal taste but I recommend at least 2 flavourful varieties)
Mornay (Béchamel + cheese) layer:
Garlic
Shallot
Butter
Flour
Whole milk
Nutmeg
Cayenne pepper (don’t worry, this isn’t ‘spicy’, it just adds a little warmth)
Double cream
Spinach and Ricotta layer:
Fresh sage
Spinach
Ricotta
Crème Fraîche (or soured cream)
Cheeses (throughout):
Gruyère (or Comté or an animal rennet free semi-hard alternative) – your melting cheese
Italian hard cheese (Pecorino, or an animal rennet free alternative) – your flavouring cheese
Toppings:
Walnut
Fresh parsley
Buffalo mozzarella (non-DOP or another vegetarian mozzarella if avoiding animal rennet) – for that perfect part-stringy, part-golden top
TIPS
I have a few recommendations for reducing moisture in your lasagne and avoiding the overcooking of any of the filling elements.
Firstly, I recommend wilting the spinach and fresh sage in boiling water for a few minutes (stirring regularly) before stopping the cooking process by dropping it in cold water. I then like to squeeze out any excess moisture with a piece of cheese cloth (or you can still do a decent job by hand).
I like a textural mix with my mushrooms so sliced the Chestnut, tore up the Oyster a little and actually left some of the small ones whole to use for my topping because they look so delicious to me! I recommend sautéing the mushrooms for a few minutes without butter or oil, allowing the water to mostly evaporate out, so your mushrooms are cooked but still have that ‘bite’. You can then melt the butter in towards the end when the mushrooms aren’t so ‘wet’.
I also recommend crushing the walnuts in a mortar and pestle to create a nutty kind of breadcrumb. If you don’t have one: a sandwich bag and a rolling pin will do, or if all else fails then crumbling them in your hands also works.
When it comes to assembly, there are a few key points:
Make sure you have a layer of the Mornay sauce at the bottom of your rectangular oven dish; this ensures the lasagne sheet at the bottom cooks and doesn’t stick. Also note: you can adjust how thick or fluid you want this layer to be by adding more or less milk whilst you’re cooking it, which is why I’ve included an approximate measure below.
As you build your lasagne, avoid overlapping sheets; instead tear the sheets so they just cover the required area. You will want your final top layer to be the Mornay so it can mesh with the cheese toppings.
I used fresh lasagne sheets – you can use dry, just ensure you allow for a longer oven cooking time than I’ve outlined below and you prepare them as per the pack instructions (usually this is pre-boiling the sheets for a little longer than with fresh).
My final tips are really just explaining reasons for instructions below: it’s really important to do your initial oven cook with foil covering the top of the oven dish. This is to aid cooking and because you don’t want all the moisture to be leached out of your lasagne. The final 7-10 minutes with the foil off under the grill is to get that golden finish on top. And lastly: make sure you let your lasagne rest for at least 10 minutes! Otherwise it will end up wet, sloppy, and without proper layers. There’s nothing wrong with a tasty, slightly messy lasagne, but this will also help you dish up. Not to mention, avoid burning your mouth…
Mushroom, Spinach & Ricotta ‘White’ Lasagne
Vegetarian white, creamy mushroom lasagne
Ingredients
- 8 fresh lasagne sheets (see above notes if using dried)
- 400g of mixed mushrooms (I used Chestnut, Shiitake and several varieties of Oyster) (sliced – smaller ones can be left whole if you prefer)
- 50g of butter (+ a little extra for cooking)
- 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 1 shallot (finely chopped)
- 50g of flour
- 1 tsp of nutmeg (grated or ground)
- 1/2 a tsp of cayenne pepper (use 1/4 if you’re averse to a little heat)
- 2/3s to 1 pint of whole milk
- 2 tbsp of double cream
- 50g of Gruyère (grated)
- 50g of Italian hard cheese (finely grated)
- 200ml of Crème Fraîche
- 200g of ricotta
- 1 sprig (c. 2g) of fresh sage (pull the leaves from the stem and use only the leaves)
- 80g of spinach
- 4 walnuts (crushed by hand or in a mortar and pestle to a breadcrumb-like consistency)
- 125g of mozzarella (sliced, or use pearls)
- Small handful of fresh parsley (c. 5g) (pull the leaves from the stem and use only the leaves)
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 200C and boil the kettle
- Prepare a medium bowl of cold water and once the boiling water is prepared, add it to a second medium bowl
- Using a utensil such as tongs: plunge the spinach and sage into the boiling water and continually stir / submerge for 2/3 minutes before plunging into the cold water, stirring for at least 30 seconds to stop the cooking process
- Squeeze out excess water (for best results, use cheese cloth) and chop the spinach / sage mix up
- In a dry bowl, combine the ricotta, Crème Fraîche and chopped spinach and sage with 1/4 of the Comté (or equivalent) and Italian hard cheese mix
- Season the spinach and ricotta mixture with salt and pepper, give it a good stir to combine everything and set it aside
- Over a medium heat in a wide-based pan, cook your mixed mushrooms without any oil or butter, stirring / tossing regularly, for around 7 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked (but not overcooked) and most of the water has evaporated off
- Melt a little butter into the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat
- For the Mornay layer, in a wide-based pan over a medium heat: melt the butter and add in the garlic and shallot, cooking for a few minutes until fragrant
- Add the flour, the nutmeg snd the cayenne pepper and whisk together, before reducing the heat to medium-low
- Begin gradually adding in the milk, whisking consistently, until you have your Bechamel base
- Add in the double cream and the cheese mix (reserving a little for the topping) and whisk until it’s melted before removing it from the heat (this is your Mornay sauce)
- Prepare your lasagne sheets according to the pack instructions
- In the base of your oven dish, spread a light layer of the Mornay sauce and cover in lasagne sheets (tear if needed, depending on the size / shape of the oven dish)
- Spread over a layer of your spinach and ricotta mix over the top of the lasagne sheets and sprinkle over some of your mushrooms
- Add another layer of the lasagne, cover in the Mornay sauce and sprinkle over more mushrooms
- Repeat this process until you have 3 layers of the spinach and ricotta mix and 4 layers of the Mornay – for the final layer (Mornay), top off with the remaining cheese mix and evenly place over your buffalo mozzarella slices or pearls
- Cover the top of the oven dish in foil and place it on the middle shelf to bake for 20-30 minutes (check the instructions on your lasagne sheets)
- Remove from the oven, remove the foil and sprinkle over the parsley leaves and crushed walnut
- Switch your oven to a medium-high grill setting and put the lasagne under it until the topping is golden (up to 10 minutes) – allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving
Let me know if you try my recipe this autumn / winter!
For a breakdown of the method, check out my Instagram demo:
But First, Food 
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