My sister, Holly, moved away from home a few months ago and
when she left she was not a cook, and didn’t seem to have much interest. However, in an effort to eat better and save
some money, apparently Holly’s been experimenting in the kitchen, and aside
from drying out chicken breasts (easy to do) has been fairly successful. (Proud sister!)
She mentioned that she was craving my white lasagna and
expressed interest in making it for her roommates, so I offered to make it while
she was home visiting for Easter, and blogging it, so she’d have the
directions online.
The original recipe came from Sara Moulton when she had a
show on the Food Network. This recipe
includes asparagus and a lemon goat cheese béchamel (white sauce made of a roux
of flour and butter). Many years ago, I
started adding spinach and mushrooms to this dish because I love them, but it
wasn’t until recently I figured out how to perfect the sauce. The béchamel had always been slightly grainy
to me. Granted, part of that is the
texture of the goat cheese, but the addition of the lemon juice to the cheese
sauce, while completely necessary, always seemed to curdle the sauce just the
tiniest bit more. So this go-round, I
found other ways to get the lemon flavor in there without it curdling the
sauce.
Lemon Veggie Goat Cheese Lasagna
4 lemons
2 bunches asparagus
12 oz box no boil lasagna noodles
2 T extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or fat of choice (butter,
coconut oil, etc.)
16 oz mushrooms of choice, chopped*
3 T butter
3 T flour
24 oz stock (chicken or veg)
12 oz goat cheese (can also substitute cream cheese if
you’re not a goat cheese fan)
10 oz spinach, rough chopped
32 oz shredded mozzarella
4 oz grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste
Using a micro plane, zest your lemons. Set zest aside.
Halve lemons and juice them into a large pot, removing the seeds. Place lemon halves in the pot with the
juice. Fill pot ¾ full with water and
bring to a boil.
While you’re waiting for your water to boil, clean, trim and
chop asparagus. The ends of asparagus
get woody (fibrous) especially if the stalks are fat. The easiest/fastest way to trim asparagus is
to hold each end of one stalk in your hands and then start bending. The woody ends will naturally break off and
you’re left with the tender tops. Then
using your one trimmed asparagus as a guide, cut the remaining asparagus to the
same length. Some people are opposed to
this as it’s not exact and it can be wasteful.
If you’re opposed, break off each asparagus one by one. I actually think it’s kind of fun and it
creates the best popping sound! When
your asparagus has been trimmed, chop into bite-sized pieces (approximately 1
inch).
Add your asparagus to the boiling lemon water and boil for
2-3 minutes. This is called
blanching. Take off the heat and then remove
asparagus and lemons with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice water. (DO NOT DRAIN THE COOKING WATER!) This is called shocking. It stops the cooking process. Set aside.
Still off the heat, empty your box of lasagna noodles into
the pot of hot lemon water. (Break in
half if they’re too big to fit in whole.)
True, they’re no boil noodles, but I sometimes find that the noodles
come out a little tough when I don’t at least run them under a faucet of hot
water. In addition, the noodles will
soak up some of that salty lemon water, thus lending flavor to the dish. Set aside.
Add EVOO to a sauté pan and heat over medium high heat. Cook mushrooms, stirring constantly, for 3-5
minutes until wilted a little. Season
with salt and pepper to taste. Set
aside.
Add butter to a sauce pot (you can use the same sauté pan if the
sides are deep enough) and melt over medium high heat. Add flour and whisk until all of the butter
is absorbed and the mixture starts to turn golden. Continue whisking as you slowly add the
stock. When the flour is completely incorporated
and the stock is hot (but not boiling) start crumbling your goat cheese, in
batches, into the sauce. Stir between
batches. Season with salt and pepper to
taste. Remove from heat and set aside.
Drain your asparagus and discard lemon rinds.
Preheat your oven to 350.
In a lasagna pan, ladle just enough sauce to thinly coat the
bottom of the pan.
1. Remove a few noodles from the pot with tongs and layer on
top of the sauce. They don't need to overlap because they will expand as they cook.
2. Layer half of the spinach and half of the lemon zest.
3. Layer half of the asparagus and half of the mushrooms.**
4. Layer 1/3 of the sauce.
5. Layer 1/3 of both mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.
Repeat steps 1-5.
To top off the lasagna, add a final layer of noodles and top
with the last 1/3 of the sauce. Using the back of a spoon, spread the sauce making sure all of the noodles are coated. Then layer the remaining 1/3 of both cheeses,
making sure that all of the noodles are covered.
Cover pan loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 15-30
minutes until the cheese is gold and bubbly and lasagna is heated throughout.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes to let layers
set up.
Cut, serve and enjoy!
*I only put mushrooms on half of this lasagna since my
sister is not a huge fan.
However, she tried a bite with the mushrooms and really liked the flavor
so henceforth I will make this lasagna with mushrooms throughout!
**In addition, since I had to distinguish which side had
mushrooms and which did not, I also layered some asparagus and mushrooms on top
of the lasagna. For the purposes of the
written recipe all of the vegetables are incorporated within the lasagna. Feel free to do either.
