Lasagne ? Lasagna

Lasagne

All my friends that come visit me in Greece get a lasagne served at some point. Not that it is a Greek recipe, but it is one of my personal favourites. I love to eat lasagne. Yesterday I had some friends over for dinner and I served lasagne as a main course.

My neighbour Ms. Roula had visited me in the afternoon and brought me fresh courgettes (zucchini) from her garden. This is when I decided that I would make a lasagne with zucchini. I prefer vegetarian lasagne in summer, as meat seems too heavy with the heat.

Dice the onions and fry them in a large pan or pot until they change colour. Add some sugar and let it caramelize. Chop the garlic and add it. Let it fry for a couple of minutes.

Now dice the tomatoes and add them to the onions. Pour some wine to it and add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, oregano and the grinded chilli. Add some water in case it is needed. Make sure all ingredients are covered in liquid. Stir well and let the tomato sauce cook on small flame for 2 hours. I do not cover the pot as I want the sauce to reduce.

Slice the zucchini very fine.

Melt the butter in a pot and let it turn brown. Now add the flour while you are constantly stirring it. It will turn into a brown mesh. Add some nutmeg, salt and pepper.

While you are constantly stirring, add the warmed milk to the flour-butter mix. The mixture will turn into a cream. Keep adding the milk until the cream is thin enough to pour it, but not as thin as milk.

Thinly spread butter in a 10-12 cm deep baking form. Cover the floor of the form with a layer of lasagne-sheets.

Now add a layer of zucchini. Sprinkle some dill over it. Now add a layer of the tomato sauce. Now add again a layer of lasagne sheets again.

Repeat the step above and add some zucchini, dill, then tomato.

Once the form is filled up to half, I add a layer of the béchamel sauce on top of the tomato sauce. Then I continue with the lasagne sheets.

The layering finishes with a layer of béchamel sauce on top of the tomato sauce. Finally the parmesan is evenly sprinkled over the dish.

Now the lasagne goes into the oven for one hour at 180 degrees centigrade.

I am baking the lasagne a day in advance and leave it in the fridge over night.

The day I want to serve it I put it into the oven for 30 minutes at 120 degrees.