Roasting any veg, especially summer veg like peppers and tomatoes, really adds so much to the flavour. This lasagne is the perfect place for those flavours to combine for a summery, healthy treat. Roasting the tomatoes and garlic for the sauce is delicious and a great way to use up a glut of summer tomatoes.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- Approx 1 kilo of mixed tomatoes. If you have less, use a tin of chopped or cherry tomatoes to get enough sauce.
- 2 shallots
- 8-10 cloves of garlic.
- 3-4 mixed peppers, the long, pointy ones work best but any will do.
- 1 large aubergine
- 2 courgettes, mixed colours is nice but not essential.
- Large pack of spinach.
- 1 large ball of mozzarella
- Lasagne sheets, dried.
- grated cheddar for topping
Instructions
To make the sauce, roughly chop the tomatoes and put in a large roasting tin with olive oil and salt. Add the garlic cloves - still in their papery skin - and roast at 180º for around 45 minutes, stirring once or twice. Leave to cool and remove the garlic cloves.
Finely chop two shallots and gently fry in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes - and another tin of tomatoes if needed - and cook for around 20 minutes until you have the thickness you want.
Take the cooled garlic cloves and squeeze them out onto a board. Mash with a fork and add to the tomato sauce 5 minutes before the end of cooking. Feel free to add a bit of fresh basil or oregano at this stage.
Now prepare the veg. The courgettes, pepper and aubergine just get sliced up, put on baking sheets with oil and salt and roast for around 30 minutes, or until they are just starting to take some colour. Set aside to cool.
The spinach can be added to a pan and wilted, which should only take a minute or two.
Finally, assemble your lasagne: put a bit of sauce in the dish first, then some lasagne sheets. Add two layers of veg and top with tomato sauce. I then added a layer of sliced mozzarella, but you could use creme fraiche or bechemel sauce. Add more lasagne sheets, the final layers of veg and top with tomato sauce. Finish with a good covering of cheddar then cook in a hot oven - 200º - for around 30 minutes, or until the cheese has browned and the sauce is bubbling around the sides.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool before serving with a side-salad.
Notes
I'm pretty sure that the roasted tomatoes should be sieved to get rid of the skins and seeds but I much prefer to leave them in. Passata or tins of chopped tomatoes will work if you do not want to go to the trouble of roasting the tomatoes. You could use proper bechemel sauce between the layers but I prefer to keep this veggie version much lighter; creme fraiche also works well.
