Lasagne is all about strong, full flavoured layers. This is a punchy vegetarian one with a delicious later of creamy celeriac spiked with some truffle oil – a hearty dish, and gets even better by the next day so a good one to cook in advance to feed a group. A wonderful recipe by Neil Perry, and a great find by Kay Anderson, who describes the dish as "substly luxurious"..
Pictured: Goats cheese spinach and truffled celeriac lasagne2 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 small brown onion, diced
Salt and pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup dry white wine
Pinch of sugar
2 tins diced tomato
1 large celeriac, peeled and chopped into 1cm dice
80g unsalted butter, split into 2 x 40g
1 cup pure cream
1 tbsp truffle oil
2 bunches English spinach, leaves trimmed off the stem and washed thoroughly, roughly sliced
1 small leek, washed well and thinly sliced
Instant dried lasagne sheets, for 3 layers
300g goats cheese, crumbled
You will need a large rectangular baking dish – at least 28cm long and 18cm wide. Preheat the opven to 190C.
For the tomato sauce - in a wide saucepan, gently fry the onion with 1 tsp salt for 10 minutes until soft and slightly caramelised.
Add garlic for a minute then deglaze with the wine – i.e. add the wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the pan. Add the sugar and reduce the liquid until it has almost all evaporated.
Add tomatoes and simmer for about 20 minutes to thicken the sauce and it has reduced by half. Season with some pepper.
For the creamy truffled celeriac- melt 40g of butter into a pan with a lid, add the celeriac and 1 tsp salt, cover and cook low heat for 5 minutes. Add the cream and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes until celeriac is tender. Remove from the heat and add the truffle oil and blend mixture until smooth either in a processor or with a stick blender.
For the spinach layer – heat the other 40g butter in a wide pan and gently fry the leek with some salt and pepper until nice and soft, then turn the heat up and quickly wilt the spinach – as soon as it is cooked take off the heat and drain off as much liquid as possible.
Prepare the dish – layer a third of the spinach, then a third of the goats cheese, then a third of the celeriac – place a layer of lasagne sheets on top.
Layer another third of spinach on top of the lasagne sheets, then ALL the tomato sauce, then another layer of sheets.
Spread the last of the spinach, the second third of goats cheese, the second third of celeriac. Leyer the final sheets.
Finish the top with the last of the celeriac and the last of the goats cheese.
Cook 30 minutes or until you can see it is all bubbling inside. And rest 10 minutes before serving. Lovely with a crisp green salad.
Serves 8