For Livvy - Vegie Lasgane

Never say no to a pregnant woman's my motto, so here's a delicious vegetable lasagne recipe at the behest of Liv - 6 months down, 3 to go - whoot whoot - keep at it lady! Recipe has several stages of preparation, but don't let that put you off, it's really super simple.

Tomato Sauce:
2 large cloves garlic, crushed and then finely chopped.
2 handfuls of fresh flat leaf parsely, finely chopped.
1-2 jars of plain tomato passata.
1 medium onion - minced (the finer the better).
3-4 roma tomatoes, finely chopped.

1. Fry off onion and garlic on medium heat until they become transluscent.
2. Add parsely and tomatoes, fry for a few minutes and then add passata and salt and pepper to taste. If I have some sitting around (and let's face it, I usually do, I may add a few splashes of red wine too).
3. Simmer until ready to use - adding water when sauce levels drop (need to have a certain amount of liquid for lasagne. More is more in this case, and if there's leftovers, just freeze and use next time).

Preparation of vegies - all interchangeable of course, but here's what works for me:

1. Butternut squash, pumpkin or sweet potato. Cut into approx 1cm thick rounds. Roast at 180-200 heat (180 for fan forced oven) with a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper and a few bruised whole cloves of garlic until vegies soften - try not to burn them or let them get too squishy.

2. Eggplant. Cut into .5cm thick rounds, brush with oil and salt/pepper. Grill on both sides until softened (again, try not to burn them).

3. Zuchini. Wafer thin slices won't need pre-cooking, so hurrah!

4. Either baby spinach left whole, no need to pre-cook, or ordinary spinach, chop and cook in pan until just wilted.

Final ingrediants:
Cheese - my particular choice would be a combination of mozzerella and shaved parmesan. Use whatever you prefer.
Lasagne sheets - if you can find wholemeal, good luck to you.

Layering - the Final Phase:
1. Layer of sauce (just enough to cover the bottom of the dish).
2. Pumpkin/squash, sweet potato layer. Don't be afraid to leave gaps, no biggie if every inch of dish not covered.
3. Eggplant/zuchini - mix it up within the layer.
4. Lasagne sheets - break them up where necessary to fit the dish, try not to have them overlap, or they may not cook properly.
5. More sauce + a scattering of cheese.
6. Spinach layer
7. Lasagne sheets + sauce.
8. Back to pumpkin, etc, etc.
9. Use common sense to decide how many layers you can fit, and how thick each layer can afford to be. Don't let the layering spill over the dish, or you'll have one hell of a messy oven. Ideally, you want at least 3 - 4 layers of lasagne within the dish, mix and match vegie layers as suits you. Final layer should be: Lasagne, then sauce, then maybe a thin layer of the spinach, then the rest of the cheese.

Oven should be preheated to 180 and lasagne will generally take about 30 mins, however, always test using a sharp knife after 30 mins to ensure lasagne sheets completely cooked.

Notes:
1.Lasagne sheets cook through the process of absorbtion, so ensure there is enough liquid within the layering to allow this.
2. The sauce should be warm when you layer, to start the cooking process.
3. I like to add fresh basil to the layers intermittently for extra flavour.
4. If you run out of sauce, just make sure you have some extra passata on standby.

Hope this works out for you Liv - let me know if there's anything else I can do!