Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

This and the next few posts all fall into one of two categories: spiced baking or pasta. I guess the in-and-out fall weather has inspired me to do classic fall baking and warm, cheesy pasta dishes. Both make me very happy.

I think the only other time I have eaten white vegetable lasagne is the Stouffer variety at a church function. It was actually much better than expected. So homemade had to be amazing, right? Well, it was. Creamy, oozy goodness between fresh pasta (I'll post a recipe for fresh pasta in an upcoming post) and flavorful vegetables was heavenly. It was so gooey that I thought a photo of a hot piece of lasagne would be too sloppy. So this photo was taken of a cold piece, because I wanted the layers to show up.

I used carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, and red pepper.  The recipe calls for fennel, which I didn't have, but would probably add an interesting flavor.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne
adapted from Rachel Eats

2 medium carrots peeled and finely diced
2 medium zucchini finely diced
1 bulb of fennel, finely diced
2 medium sweet red peppers, deseeded and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
coarse salt
2 cups whole milk
1/4 c. plain flour
1/4 c. butter
freshly grated nutmeg
8 oz. mozzarella, shredded or fresh mozzarella, chopped or torn into little pieces
3/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan
freshly ground black pepper
butter for dish and dotting on top
12 dried lasagne noodles

Dice the vegetables into little cubes and put them in a nice wide baking tray. Sprinkle them with coarse salt, minced garlic, and douse with oil. Stir to combine. On a baking sheet, roast the vegetables for about 20 minutes at 425° until they are soft, tender and just starting to turn golden. Set aside.

For bechamel: Warm the milk in a small pan but don’t let it boil. In another pan melt the butter over a low flame and add the flour, cook, stirring with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes. Remove both pans from the heat and slowly pour the milk into the butter and flour pan a little at a time, mixing well between each addition. Place the sauce back on the heat, add salt and a grating of nutmeg and keep stirring without interruption until the sauce is dense like thick cream. Set aside.

Boil the lasagne noodles as directed on package. Quickly lift the pasta onto a clean tea towels to dry.

Butter an 9 by 13-inch dish. Lay three sheets of lasagne on the bottom of the dish. Spread 1/3 of bechamel on the pasta, sprinkle with 1/2 of the roasted vegetables, 1/3 of the grated Parmesan, 1/2 of the mozzarella and several grinds of black pepper. Repeat this process again.

For the final layer, top with remaining noodles, then spread the remaining bechamel and Parmesan and dot with butter.

Cover the dish and allow the lasagne to rest for at least 2 hours and up to 12 in the refrigerator before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375° and bake the lasagne, uncovered, for about 40 minutes or until a light golden crust forms on top.

Let the lasagne sit for at least 15 minutes before serving to allow it to firm up.