Lentil and Pears Lasagna

Sunday is experiment day! I feel in need of veggie after all the meat I eat during my Munich project exile. And I wanted to cook something with pears and lentils….

This combination takes a little while to come up with: Lasagna with curried lentils, cilantro pears and paprika sauce.

Okay, here we go. First I cook the lentils:

• 150g beluga lentils (the small black ones).
• 1 clove of garlic, finely diced
• 1 nut-sized piece of ginger, finely diced

I cook them in about 25 minutes.

Then I salt and keep a quarter of the lentils in the pot. Now I add the ingredients for the sauce:

• 100 ml vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup crème fraîche
• 1 tbsp curry (again, the self-mixed)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• pepper
• salt

I boil the mixture for another 15 minutes and then puree it with a magic wand. The remaining lentils are added back in and the vegetables now await the lasagna.

While the lentils are cooking, I prepare the bell pepper sauce.

• 1 red bell bell pepper, finely chopped
• 200 ml vegetable broth

I shred together with the magic wand and pass the remains through a fine sieve. I want to get rid of the bell pepper skins this way without having to peel them off first. This succeeds and I cook the now fine sauce for 15 minutes with

• 2 teaspoons of starch.

Then I taste off with

• lemon,
• salt
• pepper
• a dash of olive oil.

Now the second sauce is ready. Another filler is the cilantro pear. For this I peel

• 1 large pear

and cut it into small pieces. I heat

• 1 small piece of butter
• 1 teaspoon of sugar,

add the pears and let them steam for 5 minutes. Then still comes

• 1 teaspoon cilantro seeds, mortared
• 1 handful of fresh cilantro leaves

added. Now quickly off the heat so the cilantro tastes like something later. Finally, I turn

• 130 g fresh pasta dough ([made earlier](../ravioli steak) and defrosted in the morning).

through the pasta machine (to strength 7/9) and cut 10*15 cm² pieces, which I cook individually for 2 minutes each. Now everything is ready to assemble. I hope the lasagna ingredients will hold their shape enough for me to make the lasagna on the sheet. For support, I use a couple of pie sheets to support 2 of the edges. So I layer on a greased baking paper (from bottom to top).

• 1 lasagna sheet (which has grown to about 22*15cm due to cooking).
• 1 thin layer of lentil vegetables
• 1 lasagne plate
• some paprika sauce
• 1 thin layer of cilantro pears
• some paprika sauce
• 1 lasagne dish
• 1 thin layer of lentil vegetables
• 1 lasagne plate
• the remains of the pears

and finally I top the lasagne with

• mozzarella in slices (1,5 packages)

The whole thing goes into the oven at 200° for 30 minutes. Now I can quickly clean up the roughest mess in the kitchen.

It’s done! And it tasted good after the drudgery. The noodles swallowed a lot of the spice, so I need to add a little more salt and pepper. Next time I can be even bolder with curry and cilantro. And the amount is enough for three ;)

lasagna made of pears and lentils