Swiss Chard and Portobello Mushroom Lasagne

Lasagne is something I was served a lot as a kid, I was very anti it then and I still am now.  I don’t know what it is about it as I’ll happily eat all the components - well mince in sauce is a bit of a no go for me so that’s probably it, and then there’s the béchamel too…  Maybe I’m not such a fan of the components after all.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat it, I just wouldn’t choose to eat it

This recipe was getting a lot of praise on a food forum I post on though and so I thought I’d give it a bash.  There’s a lot of chard on the farmer’s market it at the minute so it seemed a great recipe from a seasonal point of view.  Although I don’t tend to cook a lot of meat-free meals I thought the portobello mushrooms would add some texture in the meat’s absence.

 As mentioned I normally shy away from béchamel sauce, thinking of it as being a bit dated compared to lighter reductions with cream but once I’d added the mushroom liquor and cream in this recipe I was left with a very tasty sauce with a lot less body than some béchamel sauces have.

 

It’s pretty labour intensive but it ended up being a very nice dish – the stalks of the chard, the portobello mushrooms and the al dente pasta made for a good selection of textures and the flavours sat well with each other too.  Lasagne’s pretty substantial stuff so I think all you need is simple green salad to go with it.  

Swiss Chard and Portobello Mushroom Lasagne, serves 4-6

500ml milk

½ onion

6 cloves

2 bay leaves

A pinch of dried thyme

30g butter

30g plain flour

 

750g Swiss chard

4 garlic cloves

3 tbsp olive oil

400g peeled and chopped tomatoes

20 basil leaves

 

400g Portobello mushrooms or similar

1 lemon

100ml double cream

350-500gr lasagne sheets

25g grated Parmesan

Method

Put the milk, sliced onion, cloves and thyme into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for three minutes then turn off the heat and leave it to infuse and cool.

In another saucepan melt the butter then add the flour, stirring well and cooking for a couple of minutes to make a roux.  In the time it should end up a sandy texture, once you’re at this point add in the milk, through a sieve to strain.  Bring it to the boil whisking well until smooth then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes till thick.

Separate the chard into leaves and stems then cut each into centimetre wide strips.

Fry the chopped garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil for a minute then add the stalks and fry for a few minutes until they start to wilt and become tender. Pour in the tomatoes, season well, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes before removing from the heat and allowing to cool.  Stir in the basil leaves.

Slice the mushrooms to half a centimetre thick then heat a large frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the mushrooms, adding the juice of the lemon half way through and seasoning well. Once cooked but still firm, drain in a colander over a bowl, letting the juices drip into the bowl.

Fry the green leaves of the chard with another tablespoon of olive oil, cooking on a high heat until they become wilted and tender then combine with the mushrooms.

Make the white sauce by adding the cream and the mushroom liquor together over heat and whisking well, once reduced a bit add in the béchamel and stir till smooth.

Assemble the lasagne starting with one layer of white sauce, one layer of lasagne, one layer of tomato mixture and one layer of the mushrooms. Continue this for three layers. To finish put on a layer of white sauce, a layer of lasagne, another layer of white sauce and the cheese.  You’ll have 5 layers of white sauce, 3 layers of tomato and 3 of mushroom so make sure you don’t use too much of each per layer.

Bake in a 200ºC for 40 minutes then remove and leave to cool slightly, for ten minutes maybe, before serving.

The recipe is adapted from a recipe by Rowley Leigh in the FT newspaper.

Comments

[Lizzie]

I never manage to get my lasagne looking all nice and structured, it usually flops all over the place - I'll try resting it next time!

[Joshua Armstrong]

Me neither normally. The resting definitely helps and this was a very dry lasagne which I imagine has quite a bit of an effect too.

[GillthePainter]

I'm really pleased you tried this.
I can't account for the dryness, but I like that in a lasagne anyway.
Mine was very saucy indeed when I first made it. Gill.

[Joshua Armstrong]

I was happy with the dryness too, don't like my pasta to be sloppy.