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A special Sunday with an exceptional dish: this version of lasagna is light, rich and tasty
In all Italian homes, lasagna is the Sunday or festive dish.
But there are a thousand ways to prepare them and this one is certainly original because it mixes many good vegetables and many excellent cheeses.
Light lasagna with vegetables, a first course for 12 months
This is the spring version of lasagna with vegetables, but we can replicate it 12 months a year by focusing on the seasonality of the products.
Ingredients:
250 g egg lasagna
900 cherry tomatoes
600g asparagus
2 zucchini
4 courgette flowers
1 large long aubergine
130 g pitted black olives
100 g light mozzarella
80 g provolone to grate
60 g Parmesan cheese
1 clove of garlic
4 leaves of leaves
extra virgin olive oil to taste
salt up to taste
black pepper to taste
For the sauce
600ml whole milk
300g fontina
1 nutmeg
salt up to taste
black pepper to taste
Preparation: lasagna
To prepare light lasagna, let’s start with the sauce. We remove the fontina cheese crust, cut into cubes and then chop with the mixer. Then we pour the milk in a saucepan and put it to heat over low heat. Just before it comes to the boil, turn off the heat and pour the fontina cheese.
Mix with a hand whisk to melt well cheese and season with a pinch of salt, a few grinds of fresh pepper and a generous grating of nutmeg. Not everyone uses it, but it looks great here. We mix well and as soon as we see that there are no more lumps, the sauce is ready.
Let’s keep aside and move on to vegetables. Using the potato peeler or a small knife, peel the asparagus, remove the tougher end part and steam them, or even better in the asparagus pot for a few minutes. We need them to remain crunchy, then let them cool and keep the tips aside, cutting the stems into slices.
Trim the courgettes and eggplant, wash them and cut them into slices lengthwise with a knife or mandolin. thin slices, maximum 3 millimeters, because they must not predominate in the assembly of the lasagna.
Heat the grill and let them cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, before putting everything on a plate. We also wash and dry the courgette flowers, then remove the stem and internal pistils without damaging them.
In a large pan we pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil along with the crushed garlic clove. When it got hot we add ipcherry tomatoes cut in half: after 5 minutes add the pitted olives and salt slightly. We complete with the basil washed and broken up by hand, finally also the asparagus stalks and courgette flowers. A couple more minutes and we turn off.
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Last step: grated together the parmesan and provolonethen let’s drain the mozzarella well and chop it too mozzarella cheese.
And now the show begins: let’s take a rectangular baking dish and grease the bottom with a little extra virgin olive oil. Then a layer of pan-fried vegetables and a first layer of lasagna. Let’s cover them again with the sautéed vegetables, adding the grilled zucchini and aubergines.
Then we cover with the cheese sauce and a layer of grilled courgettes and aubergines. We go on like this forming three or four layers always with the same order of ingredients. On top we complete with the asparagus tips and the grated cheese.
Bake the lasagna in a preheated static oven at 180° for about 40 minutes in the central part. When the vegetable lasagna is ready, take it out and let it rest for 10 minutes before making portions and serving it.
