It has just hit me… Summer is slowly ending and I don’t like it one bit. I like summer, I like sun, I like the seaside and I like all the feelings related to summer itself. But this will not be a post about summer but about food. I know I haven’t put anything on here for quite some time and I feel really bad about it.
So to talk italian food. I grew up and still am living in a country bordering to Italy. Glorious carbs! Pizza and pasta must be the most famous produces ( Cicciolina is not far behind ) so I’ve been familiar to those two since I can remember. But there is a dish that I’ve never been too keen on. Lasagne. I mean… There is a reason behind that horrific statement. I dislike minced meat. I do eat it sometimes in like stuffed bell peppers or in lasagna but I never order it outside. No idea why I cannot handle the taste. I’ve tried buying meat and mincing it myself and it still doesn’t really work for me. Today I was just browsing trough my cabinets and fridge how to make a lunch that’s quick and a bit comforting since I’m having a day off work and am working on threeorsomonths worth of chores.
I’ve been away from home so much this year I’ve missed cherries, strawberries, raspberries and even peas but since the summer has been so hot and sunny the zucchini and cucumbers have gone wild. So lately I’m cooking all zucchini recipes I’ve almost forgotten about, packing both zucchini and cucumbers in fridge and am a happy little camper since I’ve finally come to some homegrown vegetables.
Lasagna seemed as best idea since I have some leftover Barilla lasagne pasta in cupboard that is taking too much space and has been there long enough ( since before i got the pasta maker). Zucchini lasagne seemed like best idea ever. I put too much chilli in it but still ate a quoter of it.
I started by making tomato sauce using tomato puree since I didn’t have any tomatoes at home and the store is not an option for today.
1 onion, finely choped
1 chilli, finely chopped
1 fistful of fresh basil leaves
4 sun dried pickled tomato pieces
500 g of tomato puree
a goood pinch of salt
a tablespoon of olive oil
Slowly braise the chopped onion and chilli with salt on olive oil untill onion goes glassy. Add chopped dried tomato and tomato puree, bring to a boil and put to low heat for about 5 minutes.
Next comes the bechamel. I can’t use cow milk since my boyfriend does not digest it well so I went with oat milk. Butter does not do him harm. So butter stays. 🙂
3 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons ( or in my measurement a huge knob) of butter
2dcl of oat milk
Heat up the butter on low heat (cannot stress that enough- there is no worse than burned butter or bechamel) and slowly add spoon after spoon of flour. Be very careful, lumpy bechamel is gross. Stir between like all the time. Stir and cook until it turns yellow-y. Slowly add milk and stir like a maniac since it will thicken really quick. Bring to a boil and stir stir stir stir. Et voila, I do not cook it for too long after that since it will continue cooking while in lasagne.
I used the mandoline to finely slice two zucchini ( leaving the seeds in since they were still quite small, if you’re working with huge zucchinis deseed them) and about 180g of parmesan cheese which I sliced on mandoline as well.
The construction of lasagne is personal choice, I put three pieces of pasta on bottom, add three spoons of bechamel and three spoons of tomato sauce, a good fistful or two of zucchini and a fistful of parmesan. I made only three layers but you can do way more. Top layer is pasta, bechamel and parmesan.
Throw it in the oven at 200 degrees ( or a little bit less, my oven is old and not the best at temperatures :)) for around 30-40 minutes. The top should be golden brown but you can put the tin foil over it for first 30 min so top layer doesn’t get so crunchy ( I love it crunchy so I never use a foil).
Bon apetit and xoxo
Tina
Bits and Bobs 