Wild Mushroom Lasagne

Confession time: I have a Food Network problem. My Freeview box is pretty much permanently tuned to Channel 48, and I could talk for hours about Nigella Lawson or Ina Garten. Any Barefoot Contessa fans in the house? I love her so much. I mean, she’s kind of awkward and her husband is a little bit creepy, but don’t you just wish she was your neighbour? Her food looks SO good. So good. If you have ever watched Barefoot Contessa, you’ll be wondering why I’m bringing her up in a diet blog. Ina Garten likes to cook with vast amounts of oil. But hey, she’s 65 and she really doesn’t look it. Maybe there is a lesson there. Gillian McKeith and Nigella Lawson are the same age, after all. I have a point though, I swear – the other day, she made this Wild Mushroom Lasagne which looked utterly heavenly, and I wondered if I could adapt it.

The original recipe (posted here, if you’re curious) has about 200g of butter and I think half a bottle of olive oil? Plus cheese and full fat milk. It’s a lot of fat, and it’s not really needed. I adapted this using my favourite Bechamel sauce substitute, Campbell’s Low Fat Mushroom Soup. Have I converted you yet?

Because much of the flavour depends on the mushrooms, I made the executive decision to leave the butter in. I know, it kind of terrified me too! But Lurpak Lighter is almost as flavourful, and 2 tablespoons only added an extra point each.

Wild Mushroom Lasagne
9 lasagne sheets – 17pp
2 cans Campbell's or Bachelor's Low Fat Mushroom Soup – 8pp
2 tablespoons Lurpak Lighter (30g) – 5pp
80g Parmesan cheese (grated) – 9pp
125g Light Mozzarella - 6PP
Fresh garlic cloves - 0PP
2 red onions - 0PP
200g Spinach - 0PP
Black pepper – 0PP
500g mushrooms – 0PP

45PP / 8PP

To reduce points - Use less cheese, use less soup, cut out the butter.

1 - Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
2 - Separate the mushroom stems from the caps and discard the stems. Slice the caps 1/4-inch thick.
3 - Heat the butter in a large sautee pan (I used my wok). When the butter melts, a couple of garlic cloves then abotu a quarter of the mushrooms at a time. Sprinkle with salt, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and they release some of their juices.
4 - If they become too dry, add a little water. Toss occasionally to make sure the mushrooms cook evenly. Repeat with the remaining mushrooms and set all the mushrooms aside.
5 - Thinly chop up your red onions and cook until soft. Remove from wok, mix in with your mushrooms (you could also cook them together, to be honest).
6 - Steam your spinach by placing in the wok with the lid on for a couple of minutes until it wilts.
7 – To assemble the lasagne, place 3 of your lasagne sheets in the bottom of your baking dish.
8 – Add about half a can of soup, spreading until it evenly covers the pasta sheets
9 – Add half the mushrooms, then top with a third of parmesan.
10 – Add another layer of noodles, 1/2 can of soup, 1/2 mushrooms, 1/3 parmesan
11 – Top with a final layer of noodles, a whole can of soup and the remaining parmesan.
12 - Bake the lasagne for 30 minutes, or until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbly and hot.

This was really good, but I felt like it could have been better. It was a bit... wet. Which meant that the parmesan got kind of absorbed, which was a real waste. I think cutting out the oil made the mushrooms retain water, which seeped out in baking, and it was a very saucy dish. But the mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic tasted AMAZING and so I want to make this again because I think it could be SO much better!

Next time, I would assemble it more like my Butternut Squash Lasagne:
A layer of the mushrooms/onions/spinach mixture, a layer of strong grated cheese (more substantial than Parmesan), a layer of pasta sheets, another mushroom layer, a layer of pasta sheets, a layer of mushroom sauce and then top with cheese. I will let you know what it's like!