Vegetarian Lasagna with Homemade Lasagna Pasta

Last Saturday was one of the most cultural evenings for the last 10 years, because we had two guests at home (colleagues of mine).  One of them was an Indian woman raised and educated in India, and my good friend (another colleague) is a Surinamese woman of Indonesian origin. Then my bf whose Mom comes from the South of the Netherlands and a Dad with Friesian origins, but born and raised in Batavia (old colonial name Jakarta) and studied in the Netherlands ... Then me ... <pointing upwards> read the profile ... HAHAHA!!!

What else would happen when you have a group who has been raised to "LIVE to EAT" and not "EAT to LIVE", it is a day of cooking ... But the funny thing was that we cooked a dish that was "indigenously" NOT ours ... Lasagna ... But definitely OUR VERSION of a vegetarian lasagna!  

The challenge was that day, our Indian friend was on her vegetarian period.  So, we had to make one without the usual ingredients that I would never miss in any dish ... MEAT ... I AM A CARNIVORE!!!  What even added to the challenge was that my Surinamese friend wished that we do not use any olives and capers ... SAY WHAT?!?!? Yes, EXACTLY!!!  However, they did not have any issue with the use of cheese ... YES ... There, I can have some flavour ... And we could use herbs ... YES again!!!

We started making our lasagna pasta ... <flashback> When I first made it in 2011, I mixed a cup of wheat flour to one egg and seasoned it with a pinch of salt.  Kneaded it until, it was possible to have it rolled ... Yes, I did it all by hand ... Even rolling the pasta dough, then I was able to make some pretty decent fettuccine and ravioli with mushroom, cheese and some Iberico ham in them ... And the "guinea pig" (aka BF) loved it !!!!

Fettuccine with meat sauce
& blue cheese

Spinach cheese Ravioli
with Tomato Sauce

<back to present time> So, I tried to start mixing the same proportion of two cups of flour and two eggs plus a pinch of salt (or more like a fourth of a teaspoon). Didn't find any whole wheat flour, but thought that the self-rising flour wouldn't make any difference ... Little did I know that self-rushing flour would be making the dough drier ... Anyway, I mixed it but the darn thing ended up to be just little pebble-like rather a whole clumpy rock.  I added an extra egg, for each cup, which made is very sloppy ... Then my sweet Indian lady friend, who had decades of experience of making chapati (they seem like thin bread like tortilla) ... She whack the dough into submission and eventually it got mixed into a clumpy rock-shaped dough.

When we got the dough, I pulled out from the cupboard the guinea pig's last Christmas gift ... The pasta maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer he gave me for the first Christmas together ... Yes, he is giving me appliances, but it was my choice ... I literally wanted it, but now it is becoming a routine ... CRAP ... Sometimes getting what you want is not always going to make you smile ... Yes, I am an ungrateful B*TCH ... HAHAHA ... That is why he LOVES me .... Because I am being ME!

Back to the story ... My trusted friends-colleagues assisted me in the process of putting the dough into the machine, which gave us more than we needed ... And even four extra sheets of lasagna (forgot to photograph them when it was fresh, and these ones are cracking now ... Which I would use for another small lasagne with MEAT!!!

Showed this to a true-blue born and raised Italian colleague of mine (nope she was no 2nd or 3rd or nth generation migrant) ... and she noted that this was too thick.  I got my first failing mark from her ... Boo Hoo Hoo ... Well, that is why I said ... OUR VERSION ... HEHEHEHE!!!!  However, she thinks that I can really cook, so she promised to give me real flour to be used for pasta making (will add that when I find out what it is.,.She told me but I forgot...HEHEHEHE). 

For the filing filling of the lasagna, using the same dough mixture of 2 cups (self-rising) flour and 4 medium-sized eggs (use only 2 medium-sized eggs for a regular whole wheat flour), I used the following:

* 2 medium length zucchini (aka courgettes in Dutch), slices in sheets;

* 2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped;

* 3 paprika (aka bell-pepper in the US & capsicum in Germany & Australia) cut in paysanne (in small cubes), I tend to use a green, a yellow & a red ... It just gives more colour;

* 1 kg of really riped tomatoes, finely chopped or even pureed but the liquid kept, you need to dry this out in the cooking process;

* 250 gms of spinach

* 150 gms sliced champignon mushrooms

* 150 gms sliced shiitake mushrooms

* 5 medium-large cloves of garlic or one of the single bulb type, crushed; 

* 1/2 tbs fresh leaves of thyme (if you have the dried type, I usually tripled or even quadrupled the amount);

* two sets of 2-3 twigs of fresh basil (which would have around 10 leaves per twig) which are finely chopped;

* 1-2 tbs dried oregano (an extra tablespoon wouldn't hurt ... hehehe);

* a tub of ricotta cheese (I would have used mozzarella, but forgot to buy and got this one in the freezer);

* a big tub of cottage cheese;

* a cup of roughly grated Parmesan cheese. 

Note: The cheeses were only used when I started layering, and did not mix it while cooking.

This is how the onion, garlic and 

tomato mixture should look like.

• heat up a pan, a good-sized one since the kilo of tomatoes are going to be in it and you would be stirring a good deal of the cooking process.
• when the pan is warm enough pour in a good amount of oil, around 5 tbs, that leaves a small puddle in it;
• put in the finely chopped onions & crushed garlic, caramelised, then follow it with the tomatoes.  I would keep pan open to dry up after a bit faster, but making sure to stir to prevent it to burn;
• throw I the mushroom and slightly stir them in the mixture;
• then a bit lesser liquid, I would thrown in the paprika, herbs and spices, followed with more olive oil. 
• Allow to simmer further until the sauce is thicker than it started.

Drizzle the baking pan bottom with oil and the sauce, the layer up:

1. lasagna sheet;
2. sauce again;
3. chopped basil leaves;
4. spinach leaves;
5. courgette sheets;
6. cheeses (ricotta, cottage & Parmesan)
7. repeat until you have only enough sauce & cheese to top everything. 

Bake the everything in a preheated oven at 160C for 15-20 minutes.  I usually turn the oven on, when I start preparing my ingredients, because I have a pretty big oven. If your oven is the size of a typical microwave oven, I would turn it on when I start preparing the sauce.

While waiting for the veggie lasagna to bake, I grilled some halloumi and steak (tips in making the perfect steak - http://asiantune.blogspot.com/2013/08/garlic-ways-to-store-them-plus-steak.html). 

It took us a good hour or an hour enough to make, had the lasagna and grilled halloumi cheese for my sweet but powerful armed chapati expert.  For us carnivores, we had an extra slice of steak!!

  

We (the three of us) were able to achieve the challenge ... Creating fresh pasta ... Vegetarian dish we three never done (or maybe not) ... Learning from each others' experience and expertise!!!

Oh, the bf & I loved it so much, that we went to the in-laws (mine) and shard the leftovers with them ... And his father asked what it was called ... The sign that he liked it ... my mother-in-law loved it too!!