Casserole dishes were an easy fix to creating a full meal in one pot/dish. Especially with two growing kids. And let me tell you, my mom mastered the art of single pot meals. Long-story short, I love lasagna. Not that it should be a surprise by now, seeing as anyone that knows me knows I love pasta.
Red, Green and Gold(Yellow) are three of the 5 colours that make up the flag of St.Kitts. Black and white being the other two. The original idea for this recipe was to recreate the flag with the ingredients but I realised my sauces were too runny and it wasn’t going to work. Either way I knew it would taste good so I decided to stop playing with my food – at least this time. This recipe is gluten-free, lactose-free and meat-free and it’s quite easy to put together. I hope you enjoy this tribute to the place I call my home and I would love to hear how you make your lasagna!
Red, Green and Gold Lasagna
Instructions
For the red sauce:
PREHEAT oven to 500 degrees. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil or waxing paper. Wash and dry red peppers and place on lined cooking sheet side down. Place in oven on rack closest to the burner.ROAST for 25-30 minutes turning to a new side after 10 minutes. skins will be black and charred.
USE foil to completely cover peppers and allow to sit til cool. Peel skins and seeds from pepper and throw away.
BRING a pot of water to a boil. While waiting for boil, prepare a cold water and ice bowl. cut a small 'X' at the bottom of each tomato.
BLANCHE tomatoes in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. remove and place in ice bowl immediately. Skin will be pretty easy to remove once cooled.
SAUTE onion and thyme until onion is semi-translucent. Add chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper to taste, Lea & Perrin, allspice, red peppers and Maggi seasoning.
COOK until everything is soft and flavours start to blend. Remove thyme sprigs
PUREE in blender until smooth. Set aside.
For the green sauce:
SAUTE grated garlic in extra virgin olive oil. Add spinach, half&half, salt, black pepper and ground nutmeg.COOK on low heat until spinach is wilted. Add goat cheese and cook until well blended.
Assembly:
IN large rectangle pyrex dish coat dish in olive oil.START layering with red sauce until bottom of dish is covered.
LINE with a layer of dried lasagna noodle. You can break noodles to make sure there are no gaps in the noodle layer.
COVER dried noodles with a layer of green sauce. Follow with a noodle layer, then red sauce, then noodles, then green sauce. Continue until dish is filled. Make sure both sauces are left to cover the top layer(this will insure they get liquid and cook nicely as well). It is good to have sauces overflow noodles. As they are dried, they will need alot of fluid to cook.
BAKE at 375 degrees, covered with foil for 90 minutes. Top noodles will be soft and sauce will have reduced a little due to the dried noodles soaking them up
Notes
After-the-fact-Wisdoms:
Feel free to use any gluten-free lasagna noodles you prefer.
Half&Half can be substituted for Lactose-free whipping cream. Any other dairy product that is lactose-free and less fat content(3% - skim millk) will curdle and is not advised to use when cooking at such high temperatures.
Lasagna is a meal that really you can switch it up anyway you like. You can use a vegetable instead of a noodle or include veggies with noodles,
Bon Appetit!
