Creamy Lasagna

I love stouffer's vegetable lasagna....it is creamy,rich and oh! so unhealthy for you ;)..i have tried recipes from many books but nothing came to the richness and the ooey-gooey stuff...all the recipes asked for thawing spinach..or grated zucchini and seriously never made the cut.
It was last week when i saw madame garten of food tv who never cooks for less than a stick of butter...made a bechamel sauce for macaroni and cheese and i thought..yes! bechamel for lasagna...that will make it rich. I really do not have a dead conscience that i will use a stick of butter..i used 1 tbls of butter and the results i must say came out pretty good. Now as nags has opted the WBB ingredient as cornflakes...i ditched the bread crumb topping and moved to cornflakes lightly crushed..and i think i am going to use the same in future too.

The recipe:

Marinara Sauce:

I love things spicy and so i used a home made indian flavored marinara i had on hand..you can go ahead and use store bought....

Bechamel Sauce:

1 tbls butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup fat free milk
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper powder


Melt butter in a pan. Then add the flour and cook till the flour turns light brown..it usually forms to a ball in this phase. Slowly add the milk and whisk it well to ensure there are no lumps and cook on medium flame for a few mts..till it coats a spoon lightly. Switch of the gas...grate the nutmeg and add salt and pepper.

Filling:

2 cups spinach - packed
1/2 onion - thinly sliced
1/4 cup peas
1 cup grated carrots
2 pods garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp.red chilly powder
salt - to taste

Add oil in a pan..then add cumin and garlic. When the cumin jumps..add the veggies and saute them lightly adding salt,red-chilly powder and turmeric. When all the liquid from the spinach evaporates...keep the filling aside to cool.

Balance

7 sheets of lasagna - par-boiled in plenty of salted water
1 cup mozzarella cheese
4 tbls cornflakes - crushed lightly and toasted lightly with 1 tsp. olive oil

Assembly:

1.Preheat the oven to 375 F

2. Take a shallow baking pan and ladle marinara sauce on the bottom. This ensures that you do not have to butter the pan.

3. Take a tbls of filling and place it on the lasagna roll about 2 inches away from the end and roll the sheet loosely and place the roll in the pan with the open end facing down. Do the same with all the six sheets.

4. Pour the bechamel sauce on top of the rolls making sure all the sheets are wet with it.

5. Then sprinkle the cheese on the rolls..making sure all the rolls have cheese on them and then top with the toasted cornflakes mixture.

6. Bake this for 30 mts or till the cheese bubbles and get a lil brown.

Notes:

1. This freezes well.

2. The bechamel sauce does not get thick in the pan..it should lightly coat the ladle/spoon..but when you bake it gets really yummy.

3. I made the lasagna is 2 individual baking pans...this way i made sure i was not basically hogging all the topping ;)



This is off to Nags who blogs at .For the Cook in me and who is hosting the WBB