Recipe of the week: Spicy mushroom lasagne
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What could be more autumnal than a mushroom lasagne packed with chilli?
Lasagne is a failsafe dish, but sometimes the classics need a bit of an update. Look no further than this dish, elevating a veggie lasagne with four types of mushrooms and a healthy helping of spice.
Spicy mushroom lasagne from Ottolenghi Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage.
Ingredients:
(Serves 6)
750g chestnut mushrooms, halved; 500g oyster mushrooms; 135ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing; 60g dried porcini mushrooms; 30g dried wild mushrooms; 2 dried red chillies, roughly chopped (deseeded for less heat); 500ml hot vegetable stock; 1 onion, peeled and quartered; 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 1 carrot, peeled and quartered (90g); 2-3 plum tomatoes, quartered (200g); 75g tomato paste; 130ml double cream; 60g Pecorino Romano, finely grated; 60g Parmesan, finely grated; 5g basil leaves, finely chopped; 10g parsley leaves, finely chopped, plus an extra tsp to serve; 250g dried lasagne sheets (about 14 sheets); Salt and black pepper
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 230°C fan.
2. Chop the chestnut and oyster mushrooms. Toss the mushrooms three tablespoons of oil and one teaspoon of salt and spread out on a parchment-lined, rimmed baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes. Drop temperature to 200°C.
3. Combine the dried mushrooms, chillies and hot stock in a bowl and soak for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid into another bowl to get about 340ml: top up with water if required. Chop the rehydrated mushrooms and the chillies.
4. Chop the onion, garlic and carrot. Heat 60ml of oil in a pan. Fry onion mixture for eight minutes. Chop the tomatoes and add to the pan along with the tomato paste, one-and-a-half teaspoons of salt and one-and-three-quarter teaspoons of black pepper. Cook for seven minutes. Add the all mushrooms and chillies and cook for nine minutes. Add stock and 800ml of water and, once simmering, reduce the heat and cook for about 25 minutes. Stir in 100ml of cream and simmer.
5. Combine the cheeses and herbs. Spread one-fifth of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, top with a fifth of the cheese mixture, followed by a layer of lasagne sheets. Repeat these layers three more times in that order, and finish with a final layer of sauce and cheese.
6. Drizzle over one tablespoon of cream and one tablespoon of oil, then cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil, increase temperature to 220°C and bake for 12 minutes. Grill for a final two minutes.
