We’ve all had lasagna; rich with meaty tomato sauce and stretchy mozzarella. So delicious. Why mess with a good thing? Well, “variety is the spice of life”, they say and sometimes it’s nice to have something a little different. Today I’m making mushroom lasagna with a béchamel sauce. It can easily be made with the addition of Italian sausage which is equally delicious, but today, I’m making a veg version with three different types of mushrooms; shitake, baby portobellos and dried porcini.
Here’s your list of ingredients:
Filling One:
1 c. Dried porcini mushrooms (soak in 2 c. hot water)
3 T. olive oil and 1T. butter
Lots of shitake mushrooms, sliced
Lots of Baby Portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. White wine
Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, pinch of red pepper flakes
Filling Two:
Spinach (If using frozen, thaw and drain. If using fresh, boil or sauté and drain.)
5 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
Béchamel Sauce:
4 T. Butter
1/3 c. Flour
2 ½ c. Milk
Reserved porcini mushroom soaking liquid
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, grated
Salt, pepper
Lasagna noodles (I used the no-boil variety.)
Grated parmesan
Here’s your list of ingredients:
Filling One:
1 c. Dried porcini mushrooms (soak in 2 c. hot water)
3 T. olive oil and 1T. butter
Lots of shitake mushrooms, sliced
Lots of Baby Portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. White wine
Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, pinch of red pepper flakes
Filling Two:
Spinach (If using frozen, thaw and drain. If using fresh, boil or sauté and drain.)
5 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
Béchamel Sauce:
4 T. Butter
1/3 c. Flour
2 ½ c. Milk
Reserved porcini mushroom soaking liquid
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, grated
Salt, pepper
Lasagna noodles (I used the no-boil variety.)
Grated parmesan
Let’s get started!
Our first order of business will be to reconstitute the dried porcini mushrooms because they need a little time to soften. (I use dried porcini that are already chopped in bits and pieces.) Place them in a medium bowl, and cover them with two cups of hot water. Swish them around with a spoon to be sure they all get wet so they can begin to soften. Just set them aside. We’ll come back to them in a few minutes.
Before we start working with the rest of our ingredients, just get your oven to preheating at 375 and grease a 13” x 9” baking pan with some olive oil.
Our first order of business will be to reconstitute the dried porcini mushrooms because they need a little time to soften. (I use dried porcini that are already chopped in bits and pieces.) Place them in a medium bowl, and cover them with two cups of hot water. Swish them around with a spoon to be sure they all get wet so they can begin to soften. Just set them aside. We’ll come back to them in a few minutes.
Before we start working with the rest of our ingredients, just get your oven to preheating at 375 and grease a 13” x 9” baking pan with some olive oil.
Okay, now we’re really ready to get started. First up, we’ll make Filling One with the fresh mushrooms. Get them cleaned up, cut off the dried ends of the stems, and slice them all up. You should end up with quite a large pile. You know how much they shrink up when you sauté them. Dice up an onion, and mince two cloves of garlic.
Heat up about 3 T. of olive oil, and 1 T. of butter together in a large skillet and begin to sauté together all the fresh mushrooms, onions and garlic. Squeeze the excess water from the soaked porcini mushrooms, being sure to save the soaking water, and add them to the skillet as well. (Don’t drain the mushrooms. The dried porcini tend to accumulate a small amount of grit in the bottom of the soaking bowl. Just scoop the now soft mushrooms off the surface of the water, and squeeze any liquid back into the bowl, reserving the liquid.)
Sauté everything together until the mushrooms release their liquid, that liquid evaporates, and they begin to shrink down. At this point, pour in a goodly glug of white wine; about ¼ c. or so. Add the herbs, salt and pepper and red pepper flake to taste. Continue sautéing until the wine has evaporated, the mushrooms are soft, golden and fully cooked. Remove the skillet from the heat, and set aside.
Now for Filling Two:
If using frozen spinach, just be sure it is thawed and drained. I happened to have some fresh in my fridge, so I boiled it and drained it well.
Have your crumbled goat cheese at the ready.
My original plan was to combine ricotta cheese with the spinach and add a beaten egg for my 2nd filling. But alas, I forgot to buy the ricotta. But that’s what I love about this recipe, or really any lasagna recipe. It’s so forgiving. Use different mushrooms, use different cheeses….go ahead, experiment!
Béchamel sauce:
The trick to this sauce is to never leave it alone. It thickens quickly, so make sure you stir it the whole time. In a large saucepot, melt the butter. When the butter has melted, sprinkle the flour over the top of it and use a spoon or whisk to combine it into a paste. Cook, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes to “cook” the flour.
If using frozen spinach, just be sure it is thawed and drained. I happened to have some fresh in my fridge, so I boiled it and drained it well.
Have your crumbled goat cheese at the ready.
My original plan was to combine ricotta cheese with the spinach and add a beaten egg for my 2nd filling. But alas, I forgot to buy the ricotta. But that’s what I love about this recipe, or really any lasagna recipe. It’s so forgiving. Use different mushrooms, use different cheeses….go ahead, experiment!
Béchamel sauce:
The trick to this sauce is to never leave it alone. It thickens quickly, so make sure you stir it the whole time. In a large saucepot, melt the butter. When the butter has melted, sprinkle the flour over the top of it and use a spoon or whisk to combine it into a paste. Cook, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes to “cook” the flour.
Now add about ½ c. of milk and whisk vigorously. You will find that it thickens quickly and begins to clump, so quickly pour in about ½ c. of reserved porcini mushroom liquid and keep whisking. As it continues to thicken, gradually add the remaining milk alternately with the remaining porcini mushroom soaking liquid. A word of caution: Remember, I mentioned earlier that grit tends to accumulate at the bottom of the porcini mushroom bowl. So pour gently without agitating the liquid, and as you get to the bottom of the bowl, stop when you see a small grit pile.
When all the liquid has been added, and the sauce is the consistency of gravy, add the grated gruyere cheese. Again, continue to whisk to melt the cheese and blend it into the sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ta-dah! It’s done.
Time to begin layering….we’re almost finished!
Layer #1: Pour about 1 cup of the sauce into the greased 13 x 9 pan and swirl to coat the bottom. Lay down a layer of lasagna noodles, being sure to overlap the edges a bit. Next comes about 1/3 of your mushrooms. Then sprinkle half of the spinach and 1/3 of the goat cheese over the mushrooms.
Layer #1: Pour about 1 cup of the sauce into the greased 13 x 9 pan and swirl to coat the bottom. Lay down a layer of lasagna noodles, being sure to overlap the edges a bit. Next comes about 1/3 of your mushrooms. Then sprinkle half of the spinach and 1/3 of the goat cheese over the mushrooms.
Layer #2: Pour enough sauce over the whole thing to make sure the whole first layer is covered. Then, here we go again with half of the remaining mushrooms, all the remaining spinach and half of the remaining goat cheese.
Layer #3: Last layer! Pour sauce over the whole thing again. Lay down the last of your mushrooms and sprinkle with the last of your goat cheese. Pour any remaining sauce over the whole thing, and top it off with a good sprinkle of parmesan.
Layer #3: Last layer! Pour sauce over the whole thing again. Lay down the last of your mushrooms and sprinkle with the last of your goat cheese. Pour any remaining sauce over the whole thing, and top it off with a good sprinkle of parmesan.
Pop the whole thing in your pre-heated oven and bake for about 45 minutes. After about 40 minutes, stick a fork in it to see if the noodles are tender. The whole thing should be getting golden brown, and bubbling up around the edges. After you take it out, be sure to let it sit for about 10 minutes before digging in. It will help to let everything set and you’ll be able to cut nice squares without it slopping all over the place.
Time to take a bite. Oh, it is so good! I really think adding the porcini mushroom soaking water to the béchamel sauce really adds a depth of flavor to the whole casserole. We thought this was seriously delicious. I hope you do too!
Serve with a nice salad and a slice or two of crusty bread. And what to drink with it? Well, because it's so cheesy, a nice Italian pinot grigio would be nice. But because it's so earthy with all the mushrooms, I think a nice red pairs well too. Take your pick! Buon appetito!
Time to take a bite. Oh, it is so good! I really think adding the porcini mushroom soaking water to the béchamel sauce really adds a depth of flavor to the whole casserole. We thought this was seriously delicious. I hope you do too!
Serve with a nice salad and a slice or two of crusty bread. And what to drink with it? Well, because it's so cheesy, a nice Italian pinot grigio would be nice. But because it's so earthy with all the mushrooms, I think a nice red pairs well too. Take your pick! Buon appetito!
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