Polenta Lasagna with Creamy Marinara Sauce

This one gets me the "gourmet quality" award from my sole taster.

I made more than necessary for two persons because I knew I could play with each of the following ingredients in different ways, separate from one another. For instance, the roasted vegetables filling can easily be made into an omelet.

For the Polenta:
(8x8 baking pan)

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1. Bring water to boiling. Stir in cornmeal and keep whisking until cooked and thick. Add rosemary, salt and pepper to taste.
2. Line a 8x8 baking pan with aluminum foil. Pour polenta over. Let cool and chill for at least 1 hour.
   

For the filling:

• 1 eggplant
  
• 1 red bell pepper
  
• mushroom, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 1 Tablespoon basil leaves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon oregano, chopped
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese
• Shaved Parmesan cheese for topping
  

Preheat oven to 200C. With the eggplant, use a fork to punch a few holes throughout and bake until the skin is charred and flesh is soft (about 45 minutes). Cut roasted eggplant into halves and scoop out the flesh from the skin. Chop coarsely.


With the red bell pepper, turning and roasting until the skin is charred. Peel off the skin once it's cool. Remove the seeds and chop coarsely.

Saute onions, garlic and mushroom with 1 tablespoon of butter and a generous pinch of salt. Stir to coat evenly. Add water, cover and cook until onions are soft. Uncover and cook until water evaporates. Remove from heat. Stir in eggplant, red bell pepper, basil, oregano and mozzarella cheese.

For the Marinara Sauce:

I twisted and combined two marinara sauce recipes into one. You may skip the cream cheese - it's good though. I didn't bother to puree the mixture - it's kind of good in its chunky, rough way.

While I was searching through the fridge for ingredients, the container where this Ethiopian spice-mix has been resting in for more than 6 months stared right into my eyes. I took a sniff at it - smelled good to me - and decided to use it in place of chillies flakes. Hey! It worked! I can now declare it "keep well in refrigeration for more than 6 months."

Once again, I'm showing my unrelenting effort in making homemade crushed tomatoes. Feel free to ignore my stubbornness. The tomatoes tasted better this time. Lucky strike!

• 2 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon Ethiopian spice-mix (or chillies flakes)
  
• 2 Tablespoons basil, chopped
• 2 oz cream cheese, cubed
• sea salt to taste

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Throw in tomatoes and cook until the skins break. Remove and let cool under running water (or cold water). Peel the skins and cut into quarters. Mash roughly. Set aside.
   
2. Saute onions and garlic with spice until fragrant (watch out for browning). Add crushed tomatoes. Cook until boiling.
3. Stir in basil and cream cheese to blend.
   
4. Taste and season with salt if necessary.
   

To assemble:

Preheat oven at 180C. Cut polenta into sizes that best fit your baking pan. Layer in this sequence (from the bottom): sauce, polenta, filling, sauce, polenta, filling..... End with sauce and top with shaved Parmesan cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover, reduce the temperature to 150. Bake for another 10 minutes. Allow it to cool before serving.

Roasted Pumpkin Lasagna with Butter Beans

Piping hot and bubbly out from the oven, it looks "alive".

This recipe uses two ingredients that I don't normally cook with: 1. carrot - I'm ok with carrot, I just don't give much thought about cooking or eating them; 2. celery - I'm better with celery now than when I was a kid. There's this other issue with celery: they come in big packages - I don't want to be thinking what to cook with celery for 7 consecutive meals. So it's not hard to see this is a combination that I'd usually avoid. It's probably the frozen cooked butter beans that called me to this recipe, which ironically plays no part in the original recipe.

I kind of messed up the part with the roasted pumpkin and cooked butter beans. The original instruction is "Clear a spot in the bottom of the pan and add the chopped roasted butternut squash and about 1/4 of the beans with their liquid. Mash the two together with a potato masher or the back of a spoon, and then add the rest of the beans to the pot." I didn't de-froze the beans fast enough (I forgot we now have a microwave). I also think butter beans are not as easily mashed as canned cannelini beans. Therefore, after some considerable futile attempts, the butter beans remained mostly "unharmed" and intact in my recipe.

The lasagna noodle recipes that I found online seem pretty strict forward. I'm not a pasta person or I wouldn't mind investing in one of those pasta maker and make my own noodles.

I'm glad I didn't reduce the recipe and made what's enough for 6 persons. Adrian did have a little comment "look like we'll be having lasagna for a few more dinners." When I said we could give it away, he looked surprised "give it away? WHY?" Yes, the lasagna is G.O.O.D.

For the filling:

• 1/2 a large pumpkin, roasted with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Mashed.
  
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
• small bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 big handful of cooked butter beans
  
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
  
• salt and pepper

1. Saute onions with salt. Add celery and carrots. Stir to coat. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
   
2. Stir in thyme and oregano. Stir to coat. Cover and let cook for another 5 minutes.
   
3. Stir in garlic and fry till fragrant.
4. Add cooked butter beans and mashed roasted pumpkin.
   
5. Deglaze with white vinegar. Add some water to thin it out if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
   

For the béchamel:

• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 cups milk, heated
  
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1. Melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Continue to whisk until the mixture turns golden brown (about 6 - 7 minutes).
2. Add heated milk, one cup at a time, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth.
   
3. Bring it to boil and cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt and nutmeg.

To assemble:

• filling
• bechamel sauce (set aside 1 cup for topping)
  
• 4 oz. of mozzarella cheese
• 3 oz. of ricotta cheese
• Lasagna noodles
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 10cm x 20cm Pyrex baking dish with butter. Mix together mozzarella and ricotta. Set aside 1/4 cup.
2. Layer from the bottom in this order: bechamel, lasagna sheet, filling, and cheese. Repeat as many times as necessary. End with 1 cup of bechamel sauce and sprinkle the top with 1/4 cup of cheese.
3. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly. Cool before serving.
   

Lentil Lasagna

,

The cheese sauce made of milk, cheddar, flour and bay leaves.

Lentil sauce: Green lentils, red/ yellow bell peppers, crushed tomatoes and bay leaves. Press it to the bottom of the pan. It looks quite like bolognese, doesn't it?


I cooked the pasta al dente. You can add one or two spoonful more of water to the lentil sauce if you prefer it to be well cooked and "soft".

This Lentil Lasagna would appease to both vegetarians and meat eaters alike. It owes its rich flavor to the herbs and spices. The green lentils also adds an interesting texture to the sauce. Not only can this dish be frozen and reheated, but also can be prepared a few days in advance.

I ran out of suitable baking dish for lasagna and had to make do with a pie dish. If you were like me, simply break the lasagna sheets into appropriate sizes and pieces to fit the dish.

I adjusted the volume and measurement of the ingredients to suit for two persons. Go here for the original.