Spring Lasagne.

At once homely and ceremonious, lasagne is the most classic of family Sunday lunch fare all across Italy. 

Lasagne of spring vegetables and eggs ‘mimosa’.

A true and traditional symbol of “Italianità”: genial, generous, joyful, unanimously loved for its quasi-mystical powers to indiscriminately please and unite.

Although traceable to Ancient Rome, the modern, national diatribe around the authentic lasagne dates to the Medieval era. The lasagne al Bolognese, made of ragu, béchamel, butter and spinach flavoured pasta sheets, perfected during the Renaissance might be the more famous, but it is its Campania cousin, made with meatballs, ricotta, pecorino, egg and olive oil that boasts longer lineage and greater historical references. Both maintain their position and pedigree today.  

Part of the much-loved genre of “pasta al forno” or “baked pasta”, these are dishes of undulating pastas often built around the béchamel, an underrated, culinary passepartout. Social and sentimental, these dishes are Italian through and through, excelling like nothing else in feeding and pleasing crowds. It is difficult to put it better than Giorgio Locatelli: “everyone is going to be full and happy”. Splendid.  

Lasagne is a multi-day affair, both in assembly as well as dispatches. The unmissable trick is to construct it the day before, so its multiple layers and flavours can have the time to seep together and harmonize. As with other slow- or baked dishes, it also significantly improves over its subsequent days; lasagne is in fact at its best after its second baking (in a bain marie, to ensure sufficient moisture is retained throughout). The bechamel should be good and plenty – a sumptuous, simple staple with heaping culinary applications, it is as surprisingly easy as it is rewarding to make. To know how to do it well, and take the little time to make it well, is well worth the smallest investment of time. 

White lasage have gained ground in recent years. Made without tomatoes, the results are more delicate and they range in their ranks of indulgence: they can be assembled with meat, fish or vegetables, maintaining the bechamel but varying the cheese according to the other ingredients. Rabbit, duck, veal or speck; prawns, crab, trout or salmon. Vegetarian options are delicious made with Spring vegetables such as asparagus, peas, broad beans, spring onions, artichokes or broccoli, or more hardy and earthy examples such as cabbage, potato, cauliflower, onions and leeks. 

A Spring Lasagne is one of the most popular incarnations of the white lasagne, enjoyed all over Italy. Various variations of it exist regionally. It can be made with a different combination of the vegetables and is also sometimes made with the addition of a pesto, most typically of basil. Another iteration is a “de-assembled” version, that is not baked in the oven but simply and strikingly, directly assembled on a warm plate.

MENU SUGGESTIONS.

As with any sumptuous first course, the choice between preceding or superseding with another savoury course is at the full discretion of the host. I am of the belief that a hearty dish is most enjoyed paired with the largest appetite, and so would often opt for the latter, though with lasagne – unlike the risotto or some other attention-demanding pasta which doggedly dictates timings – a cook-hostess is at least free of constraints of the taxing logistics of preparation here.

Regardless, a casual charcuterie board or crudité of vegetables to satisfy wandering fingers will never go amiss. (In fact, Italian table rules require something edible to be present at all times, and certainly before the start). Fresh, crisp vegetables are always a good pairing with a baked pasta dish, but in Italy at least always be served before or after (never alongside), so as not to perturb the palette or distract the digestion. 

Savoury -

warm tiger prawns simply dressed in shredded basil and olive oil, a tomato-based dish/salad for some excellent contrast, a citrussy tuna carpaccio, fried anchovies, grilled red mullet, crab tian with cucumber and dill, a crisp bacon, lettuce and tomato salad 

Sweet -

Lime and mint sorbet, a flourless chocolate almond cake, a bowl of blackberries with dark chocolate mousse, stewed peaches, liquorice ice cream, sgropino (lemon sorbet drowned in vodka), raspberries with basil and mango, lemon and thyme ice cream, strawberry and rhubarb compote, pineapple carpaccio with Vanilla ice cream, rhubarb or plum crumble, served with pouring cream

RECIPE.

This particular recipe calls for a Spring vegetable ragu and benefits not only from assembly but also decoration – with eggs mimosa, hardboiled eggs gently pushed through a sieve. The results are rather ravishing and perfectly encapsulate the bright, natural colours of spring. 

A side benefit of a vegetable lasagne is that it is also delicious eaten cold. It can be sprinkled with extra parmesan shavings, drizzled with olive oil and finished with some fresh black pepper. And as all lasagne, with be at its peak rebaked and eaten hot, on the second or third day.

Serves 8

Ricotta, 500g

Courgettes, 450g

Asparagus, 250g

Broccolli, 250g

Artichokes, 2

Leeks, 250g

Scamorza (Smoked Mozzarella-type cheese), 100g

Milk, 300g

Flour, 20g

Butter, 20g

Lasagne sheets, 8 sheets of fresh pasta made with egg

Eggs, 3, hard-boiled

Parsley, nutmeg, olive oil, salt, pepper

Start by preparing your vegetables. Slice the asparagus into thin rounds and the courgettes and leeks into thin, half rounds. Cut your artichokes into cubes (once cleaned). Brown the courgettes with a small amount of olive oil for 3 to 4 minutes and put aside. Cook the artichokes the same way. Cook the broccoli in boiling water for 3 minutes, then cut into smaller pieces. Cook the leeks and asparagus together with a small amount of olive oil for 2-3 minutes, then add all the other vegetables to this pan and combine, seasoning with salt and pepper and cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Finish with a spoonful of chopped parsley.

Now make your bechamel: melt 20g of butter in a pan, and add the flour, whisking over medium heat. Add the milk, salt and nutmeg and bring to boil, cooking for a further 3-4 minutes until it becomes denser. Let to cool. Then mix in the ricotta to form a creamy white sauce. 

Grate your scamorza coarsely. And butter your lasagne dish. 

Depending on the lasagne sheets you are using, you might need to blanch your pasta in water and spread on a tea-towel to stop sticking. Best to follow the instructions on your pack.  

Now start your assembly: spread a layer of the white sauce at the bottom of the dish. Then make a layer with your pasta. Add another layer of the white sauce, and cover with the vegetable mixture, sprinkle with the scamorza and another layer of pasta. Proceed with another two layers this way, finishing the fourth layer with abundant white sauce, a little bit of the vegetables and a generous layer of scamorza. At this point ideally refrigerate your lasagne over night.

Dot the top of the lasagne with butter before baking, placing in a medium oven (170degrees) for 45 minutes.

 Now for the decoration: shell your eggs, and pass them through a sieve, obtaining a mimosa.

Serve the lasagne topped with the eggs, over which you might drizzle some melted butter or browned butter.

*A vague grammatical irritation: lasagne is always plural in Italian, as its singular form ‘lasagna’ refers to the single sheet of pasta and hence never makes it to the table alone. No doubt incorrect, this recipe has retained the correct, plural Italian ‘lasagne’, but used it in the singular form in English…