I love you lasagna. I was watching my Saturday morning Instagram when all of a sudden this ridiculous image of mushroom lasagna shows up. I had to make it immediately. The weather doesn’t really ever dip below 70º here in Los Angeles so when it does, it is the perfect excuse to make something hearty.
I liked this because it’s not your typical ricotta filled lasagna. Instead of the creamy ricotta cheese layer you replace it with a creamy béchamel sauce layer. For some reason I was thinking, “ooohhh this will be lighter too!” It was a nice try but there is no world where lasagna is considered a light meal.
This was giving me all the vegetable lasagna vibes that I love. There are ALWAYS carrots in that kind of lasagna so I added some to this. I also added sausage because my husband always tries to order pizza every time I cook a no-meat dinner.
Creamy (where the sauce marries the pasta) Lasagna
(adopted from Smitten Kitchen)
Preheat oven to 375º
- Salt
- Olive oil
- 3/4 pound dried lasagna noodles
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- 4 cups whole milk
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, divided
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cups of cremini or portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 1 shredded carrot
- 1 lb of ground sausage
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan
Prepare noodles: Cook your lasagna noodles per their instructions.
Make béchamel sauce: Bring the milk and garlic to simmer in a saucepan. In a separate sauce pan, melt 1/2 cup butter in a large saucepan. Add the flour and cook for one minute over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Pour in the hot milk, a little at a time at first and stirring until combined. Once you’ve added half of it, you can add the second half all at once, along with 2 teaspoons kosher salt, the pepper, and nutmeg. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring or whisking frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until thick. Set aside.
Prepare mushrooms: Discard portobello mushroom stems and/or trim the ends of the cremini stems. Slice mushrooms 1/4-inch thick. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter over medium in the bottom of the large, wide pot you used to cook the noodles earlier, or in a large sauté pan. Cook half the mushrooms with a couple pinches of salt for about 5 minutes, or until they are tender and release some of their juices, tossing to make sure they cook evenly. Repeat with additional oil and butter, shredded carrot and remaining mushrooms. Pour into a bowl when done.
Cook the sausage: In the same pan that you cooked the mushrooms in cook your sausage until cooked all the way through.
Assemble lasagna: Spread some of the sauce in the bottom of an 8 x 12 baking dish. Arrange a layer of noodles on top, then more sauce (about 1/4 of what remains), 1/3 of the mushrooms, 1/3 of the sausage and 1/4 cup grated parmesan. Repeat two more times then top with a final layer of noodles, your remaning sauce and last 1/4 cup of parmesan.
Bake: For 45 minutes, or until top is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving. I serve it on a puddle of marinara sauce for more marrying of the sauces to happen.
