SUMMER VEGETABLE LASAGNE

      Vegetable lasagne is a great way to get kids to enjoy eating greens. Change the vegetables you use according to what you have in the fridge, or if you have anything that needs using up. We love lasagne at the weekends in our house. This is great for vegetarians but you won’t find your meat-eating friends complaining as it’s completely delicious.

      Serves: 4–6

      Preparation time: 35 minutes

      Cooking time: around 1 hour 40 minutes

      2 courgettes, sliced diagonally into 1cm-thick rounds

      150g purple sprouting broccoli

      100g fresh podded peas or petits pois

      6 wild garlic leaves, finely sliced (optional)

      12–14 sheets dried egg lasagne

      250g buffalo mozzarella, thinly sliced

      100g grated Cheddar cheese

      sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

      4 tbsp vegetable oil

      2 onions, thinly sliced

      2 garlic cloves, crushed

      800g tomato passata or 2 × 400g tins chopped tomatoes

      2 tbsp tomato purée

      4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

      4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

      100ml Vegetable Stock

      FOR THE WHITE SAUCE

      600ml whole milk

      1 small onion, peeled but left whole

      10 cloves

      1 bay leaf

      50g butter

      50g plain flour

      To make the tomato sauce, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and a generous pinch each of sea salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes until golden. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a blender or use a stick blender to blitz the sauce to a smooth consistency. Season to taste and leave to cool.

      To make the white sauce, put the milk in a small saucepan. Stud the onion with the cloves and add it to the milk along with the bay leaf. Gently bring to the boil over low heat. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for a few minutes before removing the bay leaf and onion.

      Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, and a good pinch of sea salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for about 1 minute, stirring, to get rid of the floury taste, but avoid letting it brown. Add a ladleful of the infused milk and whisk to combine. Continue adding the milk, a little at a time, bring to the boil, then simmer gently for a few minutes, until you have a thick pouring sauce. Keep warm over low heat.

      Heat a griddle pan over high heat and, when it’s smoking, drizzle the courgette slices with the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, season with sea salt, and chargrill on each side until cooked, for a total of 7 minutes.

      Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the broccoli for 2 minutes. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and refresh in iced water, then drain well and roughly chop. Using the same water, blanch the peas for 1 minute then refresh them in iced water and drain. Lightly crush the peas in a bowl with a fork.

      Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. To assemble the lasagne, put a layer of vegetables in the base of a large ovenproof dish (approximately 20 × 30cm), add the wild garlic leaves (if using) and cover with tomato sauce. Sit a layer of pasta sheets on top, pour over a layer of white sauce and add a few slices of mozzarella. Continue with the same process, adding three layers of pasta and finishing with a layer of white sauce and mozzarella. Finally, scatter with the Cheddar, sit the dish on a baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.