Beetroot Lasagna

Autumn is in full swing and I take advantage of an unexpectedly early Friday evening to walk through the Münster organic market at the cathedral. Beetroot is on my mind, after the discussion in the cooking club I’m looking for new ideas for this great vegetable. I decide to use it in the form of a lasagna.

For this I buy:

• 4 small beetroot, approx. 400g
• 1 leek
• 200g mushrooms
• 300g young spinach
• 1 bunch of dill, of which 20g dill leaves remain after cleaning
• 1 finger-thick piece of ham
• 2 packets of creme fraiche
• 10g dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 large buffalo cheese mozzarella, about 350g

From my supplies I complete the collection of materials:

• 200g flour
• 100g wheat semolina
• 2 small eggs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt, pepper, oregano, caraway seeds

Preparations

Now it’s time to get to work. First, I put the beetroot on with salted water and 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds. It has to cook for about 50 minutes. Relatively long, but for the lasagna it should no longer be too crunchy.

The dried porcini mushrooms are of good quality, so after soaking they do not need special cleaning. Sometimes they are very sandy, then you have quite a job with them. This time it is enough to rinse the mushrooms briefly and filter the soaking water (coffee filter in a colander).

Pasta dough

Flour, wheat semolina, eggs, 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp ground black pepper and the very finely chopped dill go into the mixing bowl and I knead the ingredients by hand into a pasta dough. Depending on the moisture of the dill and the size of the eggs must still liquid be added, I take about 10 tablespoons of the porcini water. The dough can then rest for a while while I prepare the sauces.

Mushroom sauce

I cut the ham into thin strips, then fry briefly until hot and crispy. Remove from the pan, then sauté finely sliced mushrooms and very finely sliced green leeks. Deglaze with white wine and 1 cup of crème fraiche, pepper and salt. Add the ham again.

Spinach sauce

I didn’t have to clean the spinach very much. I just cut off the root and sorted out a few wilted leaves. Young spinach is fortunately easy to care for, unlike the big-leafed winter spinach, which is usually pretty dirty, too.

Now I cut the two cloves of garlic into thin slices and also chop the squeezed porcini mushrooms. Both are sautéed in the pan, then the spinach is added with 1 tsp salt. The specially purchased glass lid proves its worth, it allows to steam the spinach directly in the pan for 5 minutes at medium heat. Then I remove the pan from the heat and let the spinach cool off a bit.

I press the leaves out on a slotted spoon over the pan and bind the sauce with a little cornstarch. The vegetables go back in.

Finishing the lasagna

Now we come to the assembly. I put the pasta dough through the pasta machine with some effort, it’s a little crumbly. After I knead it again a little with damp hands, it can be worked better. I turn it several times through the mill to down to level 4.

Then cook the dough plates individually for about 3 minutes each, until they are soft but still al dente.

Now I put a little mushroom sauce into the lasagna dish and put the first pasta plates on top. Then follows beet and spinach. Then again pasta plate, and so on until everything is used up. With my 30*30 cm form I have managed 3 layers of dough. There is some dough left over, which I turn into tagliatelle and cook. We will have them tomorrow.

Finally, I cut the mozzarella into slices and cover the lasagna with it. Buffalo cheese goes particularly well because it doesn’t turn to liquid fat as quickly as the usual plastic bag cheeses. It also browns better in my opinion, but that may be imagination since I rarely use mozzarella for topping.

Now 30 minutes in the oven at 200°C and the lasagna is ready to eat after the obligatory photo. It is served with creme fraiche.

We liked the lasagna very much! The porcini mushrooms provided good flavor and the spinach made it juicy. If you want it vegetarian, leave out the ham, it’s not a big loss.

flat piece of beetroot lasagna, spinach, with mozzarella on top, very photorealistic, food magazine style, award-winning photo, light background, white dish, restaurant setting, bright image