Jamies 30 min - summer veg lasagna
Submitted by sarah hyland
Jamie’s summer vegetable lasagna: asparagus, peas, and broad beans cooked with garlic, mint, and lemon, layered with cottage cheese and pasta sheets. A fresh, fast green lasagna for warm nights.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
25 minCOOK
15 minREADY
1 hrsForget the all-day red-sauce lasagna; this is a fresh, green, weeknight-fast take built for warm weather. Instead of slow-simmered ragu, the filling is a quick saute of spring vegetables: asparagus, peas, and broad beans cooked with garlic, anchovy, and mint.
A few clever shortcuts keep it speedy. Anchovies melt into the base for a savory, salty depth (you won’t taste fish, just savouriness), and instead of a fussy bechamel, cottage cheese and a little cream stand in for a light, tangy layer. Mashing some of the vegetables gives the filling enough body to hold between the sheets.
Lemon zest and fresh mint keep the whole thing tasting bright rather than heavy. Layer it up, bake, and you’ve got a lasagna that actually suits a summer evening.
Pro Tips
- Don’t let the garlic burn; cook it gently so it stays sweet, not bitter.
- Mash part of the vegetable filling, as the recipe says, so it has enough body to layer.
- Slice the asparagus stems thin so they cook quickly and evenly in the short saute.
Variations
- Swap in courgette, leek, or spinach for the broad beans.
- Leave out the anchovies for a vegetarian version, adding a pinch of salt to compensate.
- Top with grated Parmesan or mozzarella for a browned, bubbling crust.
Ingredients
A bunch of spring onions
½ a 30g tin of anchovies in oil
6 cloves of garlic
700g asparagus
500g frozen peas
300g frozen broad beans
Large bunch of fresh mint
300ml single cream
1 lemon
300ml vegetable stock
500g cottage cheese
2 packets of fresh lasagne sheets (12 sheets total)
Parmesan cheese
Fresh thyme (or a pinch of dried thyme)
Directions
Half fill and boil the kettle.
Pour the oil from the <a href="/how-to/how-to-store-leftover-anchovies" title="How to Store Leftover Anchovies">anchovies</a> into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Finely slice the spring onions and half of the anchovies and then add them to the saucepan.
Crush the six cloves of garlic into the pan and fry for a few minutes ensuring that the garlic doesn’t burn.
Trim the pointed tips off the asparagus and put aside, then trim the woody ends from the other side and discard (see this How to trim asparagus video for more information). Finely slice the stems of the asparagus into 1.5cm pieces before adding to the pan with a splash of water from the kettle.
After five minutes, add the peas and broad beans along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.
Pick and chop up the mint leaves then add them to the saucepan along with the cream. Grate in the zest of half a lemon.
After a few minutes, use a potato masher to mash some of the filling to create texture. Cover with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil before adding 250g of cottage cheese.
Give everything a good stir and cook for a few more minutes.
Preheat the <a href="/how-to/it-pays-to-know-your-oven" title="It pays to know your oven">oven</a> to 200°C.
Take the vegetables off the heat and spoon around one quarter of the mixture into a 30cm x 35cm deep dish (I used two smaller dishes). Top with a lasagne sheet and a generous grating of parmesan cheese.
Repeat the layers of vegetable and lasagne sheets until you have used all of the filling and then top with a final sheet.
Mix the remaining 250g of cottage cheese with a splash of boiled water and then spread over the lasagne.
Drizzle olive oil over the asparagus tips then place onto the lasagne. Sprinkle over the thyme along with another good grating of parmesan and a final drizzle of olive oil.
Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the topping has browned.
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