Recipe for spicy mushroom lasagna
The star chef’s take on a delicious vegan version of lasagna.
We have the recipe from the book: “FLAVOUR: 100 Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes from Star Chef Yotam Ottolenghi“, written by Yotam Ottolenghi & Ixta Belfrage. They write the following about the recipe:
“This lasagna features one of the two absolutely amazing ragù recipes in this book (the other is the ultimate traybake ragù). In our opinion, both can rival any meat sauce.
The sauce is a tribute to penne all’Aconese – the first dish Ixta ever fell head over heels for. It is served at Ristorante Pizzeria Acone, a community-run restaurant in the Tuscan village of Acone, located at the top of the mountain where she spent her formative years. The recipe is a big secret, but you can’t help but notice the complex, deep forest floor flavor of porcini mushrooms. This is our meat-free version of the restaurant’s legendary ragù.
The ragù can easily be made vegan if you omit the cream. It can also be cooked in advance and stored in the fridge, ready to be served over pasta or polenta, so you don’t have to assemble the lasagna if you’re short on time.
Turn down the pepper, and skip the chilies if the lasagna needs to be child-friendly. If you want to get ahead, you can assemble the lasagna, place it in the fridge, and bake it the next day (once it has come back to room temperature).”
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Deciliter Measure
- Cutting Board
- Chef'S Knife
- Oven
- Food Processor
- Bowl
- Baking Tray
- Baking Paper
- Sieve
- Sauté Pan
Ingredients
- 750 gram Mushroom browned and halved
- 500 gram Oyster Mushrooms
- 112.5 gram Olive Oil plus extra to grease
- 60 gram Karl Johan svamp dried
- 30 gram Mushrooms wild - dried
- 2 pcs. Chili dried red, finely chopped - remove seeds if you prefer a milder dish
- 500 gram Vegetable Broth boiling
- 1 pcs. Onion cut into quarters
- 5 cloves Garlic coarsely chopped
- 1 pcs. Carrots cut into quarters - 90 grams
- 200 gram Plum Tomatoes cut into quarters
- 75 gram Tomato Puree
- 125 gram Whipping Cream
- 660 gram Pecorino grated
- 60 gram Parmesan
- 5 gram Basil Leaves finely chopped
- 10 gram Parsley Leaves finely chopped - plus 1 tsp for garnish
- 250 gram Lasagna Sheets dried - about 14 pieces
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 230°C fan.
- 2. Put the mushrooms and oyster mushrooms in a food processor in three or four batches, and finely chop each batch using the pulse function (or finely chop them by hand). Toss the chopped mushrooms with 3 tbsp oil and 1 tsp salt in a large bowl, and spread them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Roast them in the oven on the top rack for 30 minutes, until they are golden brown and well shrunken. Stir them three times during cooking. Remove them from the tray and set aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C, still fan.
- 3. Meanwhile, put the dried mushrooms in a bowl with the chilies and the hot broth, and let them soak for 30 minutes. Strain the broth into another bowl and press as much liquid out of the mushrooms as possible, until you have 3½ dl (top up with water if necessary). Roughly chop the soaked mushrooms (it’s fine if some pieces are larger), and finely chop the chilies. Set the broth and mushrooms aside separately.
- 4. Finely chop the onions, garlic, and carrots using the pulse function in the food processor, or chop them by hand. Heat ½ dl oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the onion mixture and sauté for 8 minutes, stirring regularly, until the onions are translucent and golden. Finely chop the tomatoes using the pulse function in the food processor (or by hand), and add them to the pan along with the tomato paste, 1½ tsp salt, and 1¾ tsp pepper. Cook for another 7 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the soaked dried mushrooms and chilies along with the oven-roasted mushrooms, and let it all simmer for 9 minutes without stirring – the mushrooms should be slightly crispy and browned at the bottom. Stir in the mushroom broth and 8 dl water, bring it all to a boil, then reduce to medium heat. Cook the sauce for about 25 minutes, stirring regularly, until it has the consistency of classic meat sauce. Stir in 1 dl of the cream and let the sauce simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- 5. Mix the two types of cheese and the herbs together in a small bowl. Assemble the lasagna by spreading one-fifth of the sauce in the bottom of a round 28 cm baking dish (or a 20 x 30 cm square dish), and sprinkle one-fifth of the cheese mixture on top. Lay a layer of lasagna sheets over it, breaking them into pieces to fit the shape of the dish. Repeat the layers three more times in the same order, finishing with a final layer of sauce and cheese – that is, five layers of sauce and cheese in total, separated by four layers of pasta.
- 6. Drizzle 1 tbsp cream and 1 tbsp oil over, cover the dish with foil, and bake the lasagna for 15 minutes. Remove the foil, increase the temperature to 220°C fan, and bake the lasagna for another 12 minutes, turning the dish halfway. Set the oven to grill and grill the lasagna for an additional 2 minutes, until its edges are brown and crispy. Let it cool for about 5 minutes, then drizzle with the remaining tbsp of cream and oil. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley, and finish with a good sprinkle of pepper.