Meat and Vegetable Lasagna
A few days before Passover, some are busy eliminating chametz stockpiles, and others are stocking up in anticipation of the expected shortage. Either way, the kids are about to be on vacation at home and, as expected, they are always—always—hungry. And what speaks to them more than meat and vegetable lasagna? Here in a meaty version, without dairy products. Even the béchamel gets a pareve version.
Ingredients for a rectangular baking dish, 17×28 cm
9 lasagna sheets
For the meat and tomato sauce:
500 grams ground meat
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 chopped onion or leek stalk
1 chopped or grated carrot
1 chopped celery stalk
2 crushed garlic cloves
Salt
Black pepper
1 bay leaf
3–4 thyme sprigs
3–4 oregano sprigs
5 blanched, peeled, and chopped tomatoes
For the vegetables (one or more):
2 roasted peppers
1/2 head cauliflower, broken into florets and roasted or fried
1 roasted eggplant, peeled
5 sliced portobello mushrooms
2 sliced tomatoes
For the white sauce:
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups broth (can be chicken stock, beef stock, or best of all—strained onion soup)
A bit of grated nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 crushed garlic clove
Preparation
1. Heat a pot with olive oil and sauté the onion, carrot, and celery.
2. Add garlic and meat and fry together until the meat is fully crumbled.
3. Season with salt and pepper, add herbs and tomatoes, cover, and cook for half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C.
4. Prepare the white sauce: Heat olive oil in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Pour in the broth, season with garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and stir until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat, add mayonnaise, and mix well.
5. Assemble the lasagna: Place 3 lasagna sheets in a greased baking dish, spread one-third of the meat sauce, one-third of the vegetables you've chosen (pepper, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms and/or tomatoes), then again lasagna sheets, sauce, and vegetables. Finish with the white sauce, tomato slices, and oregano leaves, and put in the oven.
6. Bake for 30–40 minutes, or until the lasagna is soft, golden, and bubbling. Wait ten minutes for the lasagna to set before slicing, so the layers don't fall apart.
