We have builders in at the moment, restoring our bathroom after a deluge from a faulty shower in the 'Willy Wallace Backpackers' above us. Thankfully it is all being paid by the insurance, which is quite a blessing! However, I'm good with neither disorder nor dust, so this week is a real opportunity to develop some patience and good humour through a bit of 'stretching'...
I think this supper may help to restore my emotional equilibrium though: it is a bit of a crib from Nigella Lawson's Christmas book, released last year. Her recipe consists of three sauces - a smooth tomato passata, pumpkin cooked in tomato, and a goats cheese and ricotta topping. It also feeds about 20 people! My version is greatly scaled down, it feeds 2 generously, and is rather more abstemious in the ingredients. However, don't be put off! It is perfect for a frosty autumn night.
A note on the pasta - I used dried lasagne sheets and was disappointed by the resulting clagginess. Nigella uses fresh sheets in her recipe and I would recommend you do the same, as I will next time - they don't have to be hand made, check the chiller cabinet at the supermarket.
Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves, or a few fresh
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 plump cloves of garlic, squashed
- 400g pumpkin (peeled and deseeded weight), chopped into 1 inch squares
- Tin good quality chopped tomatoes
- Pinch sugar
- 1/2 bag prepared spinach
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 400ml full fat milk
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- Fresh nutmeg
- Sheets fresh lasagne ( how many you will use will depend on the dimensions of your dish)
- 1 goats cheese (I used a fairly soft rindless one from Somerset)
Method
- Heat a little olive oil with the sage leaves in a large saucepan. Once the heat and scent rise up, add the garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and soft.
- Add the cubed pumpkin and stir to coat with oil, then throw in the chopped tomatoes.
- Season the tomatoes with a little sugar, and some salt and pepper. Depending on the brand of tomatoes you may want to add about 1/4 cup water.
- Bring the pumpkin to a hearty simmer, and allow to cook for about 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft to the point of a knife but not collapsing, and the tomatoes have reduced a little to form a thickish sauce. Once it is ready, add the spinach leaves, gently stirring and tamping them down with your spoon until they wilt into the sauce.
- Meanwhile, heat the milk gently to body temperature.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour until a smooth paste forms, then cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the colour darkens slightly.
- Start to add the milk, stirring well after each addition so that no lumps form, until all the milk has been incorporated.
- Keep the heat steady and stir continuously for around 10 minutes until a thick bechamel has formed. The white sauce will form a coat on the back of a wooden spoon when it is ready.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and quickly beat in all the parmesan, with nutmeg and salt to taste.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F.
- In your favorite lasagne dish (we all have one) start to layer the pasta - start with a good slosh of the pumpkin, top with pasta sheets, then smooth on some bechamel and crumbled goats cheese, top with some more pumpkin and lasagne. Keep layering - how many layers you make will depend on whether your baking dish is wide and shallow or narrow and tall. Finish with a good covering of the last of the pumkin.
- Finally, break up the remaining goats cheese all over the surface and pop into the oven.
- Cook for 20 minutes or until the tomato and bechamel sauces are bubbling up the sides and the goats cheese is brown.
