Pasta-less Lasagna — lighter but still full on flavour
I’m very fond of lasagne. This one swaps out the pasta for thinly sliced courgette. And it uses the gluten-free white sauce from Cornucopia’s Mushroom Moussaka.
This is a meaty lasagna. But I add olives into the filling so I think of this a heart-healthy lasagna. It tastes very distinctive. I love it. Unfortunately, unlike my vegetarian and the other meaty lasagna this can’t be made ahead, frozen and baked when you’re longing for some lasagne. Still it’s a lovely dish - especially in the summertime.
I read somewhere that lasagne should be spelled lasagna as the first is the plural form and the second is singular. As I was renaming this I thought I would title it a lasagna. Turns out, Americans spell it lasagne and non-American English speakers spell it lasagna. And Italians? I think they mutter something about “They call this Italian food??” And walk off indignantly. Which is a fair response really.
I don’t think any Italian grandmother would recognise this as a lasagne. Or lasagna. But maybe she’ll like it anyway?
When I first made this I cooked the courgette slices prior to using them in the lasagne. This step isn’t necessary.
Pasta-less Lasagna
Yield: Serves 6
Suitable for: Gluten-free diet
Ingredients:
- 1 medium-sized onion, peeled & chopped roughly
- 1 large carrot, peeled & chopped roughly
- 2 celery sticks, halved
- ~400g minced beef
- 6 unsmoked back rashers (bacon)
- 1 (400g) tin peeled plum tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried basil
- 75g pitted black olives
- 5 sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 pinch Cayenne pepper
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 large courgettes
- 3 eggs
- ¼ - ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- leaves from 2 sprigs of mint, finely chopped
- 500g Greek-style natural yoghurt
- salt & freshly ground pepper
Instructions:
Make the black olive & roasted red pepper tapenade
Heat the oven to 200° C. Remove the stalk. core and seeds from the red pepper, cover with a little olive oil and bake for 30 minutes or so until the skin is browning and blistering. Then take out, turn off the oven, and leave the pepper to cool for a few minutes so that you can easily pick off the skin. Add the olives, sun-dried tomatoes, skinned roasted red pepper, Cayenne pepper and the red wine vinegar into the food mixer. Mix until you have a tapenade-like mix. Take out and leave aside. Wipe down mixer.Prepare the vegetables
Top and tail the courgettes and slice them into vertical strips. Use a good potato peeler to slice them as thinly as possible. Oil an oven with some extra virgin olive oil. Line the bottom of an oven dish with half the courgette slices, and leave the rest on a plate to layer in later. To prepare the remaining vegetables, put the carrot, celery and onion into a food mixer. Mix until minced. Scrape out the minced veg onto a plate and wipe down the food mixer.Prepare the meat
Cut most of white fatty bits off the rashers, chop roughly and put in food mixer. Mix until minced and scrape the minced bacon onto a plate. Break the meat apart so that it’ a bit more crumbly rather than all clumped together.Cook the lasagna filling
Heat a little oil in a deep frying pan and add the carrot, celery and onion mix. Stir in the dried basil and oregano and cook for about 5 minutes until it has softened. Push the vegetables out to the sides of the pan, turn the heat up to high and cook the minced beef until it’s just turned brown, reduce the heat to a gentle-moderate setting and crumble in the bacon. Stir around well. Once the bacon has all turned pale and opaque pour in the tinned tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes with a fork or potato masher. Turn the heat on high and bring to the boil. Stir in the crushed garlic. Reduce the heat and leave simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the tapenade and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.Prepare the yoghurt topping for the lasagna
Crack the 3 eggs into a deep bowl. Mix in the mint, nutmeg and a good pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Next, mix in the yoghurt.Assemble & the lasagna
Pour or spoon half the lasagna filling over the layer of courgette slices in the oven dish. Layer the remaining courgette slices over this and again pour or spoon the remaining lasagna filling over this. Finally pour or spoon over the yoghurt topping. Bake in the oven at 180 C for about 40 minutes or until the top is nicely set and browned a little.
Enjoy!
