Pesto Lasagne.
Homemade pesto, hands down, is miles better than store-brought & there really is no better way to have it than with pasta, right? This classic pairing has proved well once again in this twist on the, also classic, tomato-based lasagne. Chewy wholewheat lasagne sheets wedged between flavourful homemade pesto, spinach and peas, and a creamy white cheese sauce; all topped with golden crisp breadcrumbs. Your house will smell delicious after cooking this!
Serves: 4 | Total Cooking Time: 50-60 minutes
Ingredients
300g (roughly 15-17 sheets) wholewheat lasagne sheets
For the pesto
40g pine nuts
100g frozen peas
60g fresh basil (make sure to use the stalks to prevent food waste)
5 garlic cloves
Juice of a 1/2 lemon
7g nutritional yeast
200ml water
For the white sauce
500ml almond or oat milk
40g nutritional yeast
40g corn flour
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC fan
Place all the pesto ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth and thick.
Boil some water and place the boiled water in a deep, large bowl. Submerge your lasagne sheets into the hot water and allow them to soften slightly until they become pliable.
While your pasta is softening, begin to make your white sauce.
First, mix the corn flour in a small bowl with a couple tbsp water, until a paste-like consistency.
Place in a saucepan on medium heat with the remaining white sauce ingredients and mix continuously to ensure no lumps form. Continue this until it thickens to resemble thick melted cheese. Check: The cheese should be thick enough to hold on your spoon, but runny enough to still gloop down back into the pan - very much like a thick smoothie consistency.
Take a deep baking dish and start to assemble your lasagne by placing 3 lasagne sheets on the bottom, then layering with pesto, and then the white sauce - repeat this step over and over and make sure you finish the last layer with the béchamel sauce on top.
Bake in the oven for roughly 35 minutes until the top is crisp and the sauce is bubbling.
Slice into squares and serve!
Dig in & enjoy! and please let me know how you get on with making it x