The! Vegie Lasagna

This is one of my favorite recipes, its inspired in the lasagna from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. But instead of having meat we replaced it with some great veggies. It serves around 4-6.

-Ingredients

For the Bolognese Sauce

1 aubergine
1 courgette
250g of mushrooms
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
3 carrots
3 sticks of celery
olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh basil
50g Parmesan cheese

For the lasagne

250g dried egg lasagne sheets
1 x 500ml tub of creme fraiche
100g Parmesan cheese
1 large ripe tomato

-To make your Bolognese sauce

Cut the aubergine and fry it until is gold, put apart. Do the same to the courgette and the mushrooms.

Peel & finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery - don't worry about technique; just chop away.

Place a large casserole-type pan on a medium to high heat, add 2 lugs of olive oil, your oregano and cook and stir. Add the veg to the pan and stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes or until softened and lightly colored.

Add the tinned tomatoes followed by the aubergine, courgette and mushrooms. Fill one of the empty tins with water and add to the pan . Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Pick the basil leaves and place in the fridge for later. Finely chop the basil stalks and stir into the pan.

Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on for 45 minutes, stirring every now and again to stop it catching.

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F / GM5. Remove the Bolognese sauce from the heat. Finely grate the Parmesan and stir a quarter of this into the sauce.

Tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later. Have a taste of the sauce, and season with a little more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

The original recipe suggests to boil the lasagna sheets, i don't do it as i'm using Barilla sheets and they cook really well.

Spoon a third of your Bolognese sauce into the bottom of an earthenware oven proof dish. Follow with a layer of lasagna sheets. Dollop over a third of your creme fraiche and smooth it out to cover the lasagna sheets. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper and another quarter of your grated Parmesan. Add another layer of lasagne, and repeat the layers twice more, finishing with a layer of creme fraiche and the remaining Parmesan.

Top with some slices of tomato, scatter over the small basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil.

Cover with foil, place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
After that, remove the foil and cook for a further 35 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and golden.

The yummy result! :)