The best advice for prolonging your youthful good looks: eat your veggies!
Make this all-green lasagne or incorporate more green into your meat-sauce lasagne by adding three spinach layers and keeping the other two filled with bolognaise. Remember: a good lasagne doesn’t go slip-sliding away but stands upright on your plate.
10 sheets spinach lasagne sheets (we used Barilla La Collezione Lasagne con Spinaci)
For The Spinach Filling
1 tbsp olive oil
300g chard, washed, cored and sliced
150g baby spinach leaves
50g herbs (we used flatleaf parsley, winter savoury, one stick rosemary, sage, thyme and sweet rocket)
150g ricotta
1 tsp grated lemon zest
Freshly ground nutmeg
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
For The Béchamel
30g butter
30g flour
450ml low-fat milk, warmed
24.5cm x 17cm lasagne dish
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over a medium-high heat, add all the greens and cook for a few minutes, tossing constantly, until bright green and wilted. Place in a colander and use a bowl to press down on the greens and squeeze out every bit of liquid. Process in a food processor until smooth, seasoning with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Combine with the ricotta and lemon zest and set aside. In a small pot over medium heat, melt the butter until foaming, add the flour and cook, stirring, until it smells biscuity. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Bring to the boil, simmer for two minutes and season. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, cook the lasagne sheets for one minute and set aside on a plate lined with a tea towel. To assemble the lasagne, spread two tablespoons of bechamel over the base of a 24.5cm x 17cm lasagne dish and cover with two lasagne sheets (you’ll have to cut them to fit). Spread two to three forkfuls of the spinach mixture over the lasagne sheets and then drizzle over two tablespoons of béchamel. Continue until you have five layers, finishing with a layer of spinach drizzled with four tablespoons of béchamel. Bake for 20 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes. Cut into squares and serve with a drizzle of your finest extra-virgin olive oil.
Serves 4. Per 363g serving: 1 965kJ, 17g fat (7g sat), 490mg sodium, 65g carbs, 14g fibre, 8g sugars, 23g protein.