Daring Bakers Lasagne!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge I was as surprised as many of the other daring bakers to see this challenge, its very different from our other challenges, and I really lagged behind on getting it done. I was so glad that i did though, it was really fun getting the pasta machine out, and my husband absolutely loved it, so that was really rewarding. I was so scared that the pasta machine would break with the spinach, but it was fine.

Please see beans and caviar for the whole recipe, I'll share my changes to make it veggie!

I decided on a half recipe, that way we would have a big dinner with leftovers, but not enough to have lasagne coming out of our ears!

I made a veggie ragu, I went the easy option and subbed some fake meat and mushrooms, this made it a lot more appetizing to my husband!

I didnt change anything other than the ragu, here is my veggie take on it:

Country Style Ragu’ Ragu alla ContadinaPreparation

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (15 mL)

1/2 medium onion, minced

1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced

1 small carrot,

4 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped

7 oz beefless strips, chopped

dry red wine

1 tsp better than bouillon, dissoved in 3/4 cup water

1 cup milk

1/2 tin diced plum tomatoes, drained

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp arrowroot mixed with water

Sautee mushrooms, celery and carrots until soft, add mushrooms, stir then add wine, followed by all other ingredients. Simmer for 10 mins.

The sauce was a little thin so I took some and blended it with a hand blender and added some arrowroot to thicken, simmering for a further 2 mins.