Jasia’s spinach and mushrooms lasagne..

Great, for 6-8 hungry people, not necessary vegetarians.

• 1400 ml marinara sauce

• 150 ml olive oil
• 500 g mushrooms, cleaned, sliced
• salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
• 500 g fresh spinach, washed, stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped
• pinch freshly ground nutmeg
• 350 g freshly grated mozzarella
• 250 ml freshly grated parmesan
• 450 ml ricotta
• 1 egg
• 250g ready-to-bake lasagne (can be the dry kind)

Prepare the components.

1. Beat ricotta with an egg.
2. Heat olive oil in the large frying pan.
3. When the pan hot  toss in the mushrooms.
4. Season with salt and pepper, cook until the juices released.
5. Reduce the heat, cook until the mushrooms are lightly browned and the juices reabsorbed.
6. Gradually drop in the spinach, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
7. Cook just until the leaves are wilted.
8. Remove the pan from the heat.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Construct the dish

1. Brush rectangular baking dish (approx 23x32x5 cm) with oil or butter.
2. Spread some marinara sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Plan for 4 layers (?) of sauce.
3. Cover it with layer of lasagne, placed side by side, overlapping only slightly if necessary.
4. Coat the lasagne with another layer of marinara sauce.
5. Scatter half of the spinach and mushrooms mixture in an even layer.
6. Spread half of the mozzarella and ricotta, drop about 1/4 (60 ml?) of the parmesan.
7. Cover it with layer of lasagne, placed side by side, overlapping only slightly if necessary.
8. Coat the lasagne with another layer of marinara sauce.
9. Scatter remainder of the spinach and mushrooms mixture in an even layer.
10. Spread remainder of the mozzarella and ricotta, drop about 1/4 (60 ml?) of the parmesan.
11. Add third layer of the lasagne noodles.
12. Drop the remainder of the marinara sauce.Make sure the noodles are covered completely.
13. Sprinkle the rest of parmesan.

Finish

1. Bake in 200C/400F for 30 minutes of until the lasagne is tender and cheese golden.
2. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Variations:
Lasagne with spinach and artichoke hearts : replace the oil with unsalted butter, substitute Fontina cheese for mozarella. Instead of mushroom us about 700ml of thinly sliced artichoke hearts. sauteed briefly in a small amount of butter

Lasagne with the White Sauce: Substitute 250 ml warm white sauce thinned with a cup of milk for the ricotta and egg. The white sauce is particularly good with the artichoke variation (above) .