Raise your hands, who wants a piece of delicious winter lasagna right now? I bet you all raised the hand. Hehehe. I did it too. I remember, when I was still a teen, I loved lasagna. The lasagna my mother always made, was amazing; very rich like the real one. Living on the border to Italy, the Italian cuisine had a big influence on us.
Lasagna origins from the Emilia Romagna region, but nowadays different combinations can be found among the regions in Italy and of course everywhere else on this planet. But what makes a traditional lasagna perfect? Simple ingredients like tomatoes, onion, minced meat, carrot and celery make a great thick sauce known as ragù. Then comes the Béchamel sauce that keeps everything together and of course pasta.
In this recipe, I made something completely different from the traditional lasagna. And yet, it was still a lasagna, only a new variation. As mentioned above, it is a winter lasagna. Maybe for someone too traditional, it will be too special. However, there is one thing all variations have in common. Lasagna makes you happy.
And this winter lasagna will make you very happy. It consists of alternating layers of pizza-tomato sauce and cabbage-leek. But that’s not all. Inside you will also find bacon and chestnuts. Sounds like a real autumn-winter oven-baked dish, right?
I used a loaf baking pan for this recipe. It had the perfect size and shape. But instead, you can also use any shape you like.
Ingredients for 4 portions of winter lasagna:
- ½ big leek or 1 small
- ½ of a small cabbage head
- ca 10 chestnuts (cooked)
- 100 g bacon (cubes)
- 400 ml tomato sauce (with small pieces)
- 1 onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 10 black olives (no stone)
- 8 no precook lasagne pieces (flat and square shaped pasta) – maybe you’ll need more
- 100 g cheese (shredded)
- 50 g sour cream
- olive oil
- oregano
- salt and pepper
Prepare two large pans. One for the tomato sauce and the other for the cabbage-leek filling. Begin with cleaning, washing, peeling and chopping. Cut the leek in circles and the cabbage into strips.
Furthermore, we prepare the pizza tomato sauce. Drizzle some olive oil in a pan and heat it. Then add the chopped garlic and onion. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Once the onion is glossy and garlic gets tender add the tomato sauce. I used the one with small tomato chunks. Stir and bring to boil. Then turn down the heat, add the oregano, black olives (I cut them in half), salt and pepper, give it a stir, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes. After that, remove from the stove.
In the meantime, while the tomato sauce is simmering, prepare the cabbage-leek filling. Again, drizzle some olive oil in the other large pan. Then add all of the bacon, cabbage and leek and season well. It will look like it is too much of cabbage but the cabbage will release the water, thanks to the salt, and it will soften. As a result, the amount will visibly be halved. So, put everything in the pan and cover. You can also add a little bit of warm water (50 ml). Meanwhile, roughly chop the chestnuts. Once the cabbage and leek have softened add the chopped chestnuts, turn off the stove and cover.
Lasagna likes to stick at the bottom of the baking dish. But there is a trick. Some people like to use baking paper some prefer to spread a spoon of tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan. However, if you use the baking paper, remember to remove it or else the lasagna will get too moist at the bottom. Given these points, it is time to build our winter lasagna.
My lasagna had 3 layers of pasta and 2 layers of the filling. Save a couple of spoons of the tomato sauce for the end. Start by placing a layer of lasagne pasta followed by the tomato sauce. Try not to put too much, instead just enough to cover. Then add a layer of bacon cabbage-leek with chestnuts, sprinkle with a little cheese and add another layer of pasta. Then repeat by adding tomato sauce, cabbage-leek filling and cheese. Finish with the third layer of pasta and the tomato sauce.
Preheat the oven to 180º C. In a small bowl combine the remaining cheese with the sour cream. Pour this creamy mixture on top of the lasagna, trying to cover also all the borders and corners. Place the baking dish in the oven on the middle rack and bake for ca 35-40 minutes.
Another important tip, the corners like to get too dry and crunchy. In order to prevent that, shortly before the end of the baking time add some drops of water on each corner or tomato sauce if you have any left. That should work.
I bet you are excited. Turn off the oven but leave it to rest at least 30 minutes. Longer you wait, better it gets. And everyone knows that a lasagna tastes the best on the next day.
Serve the winter lasagna with a glass of a nice wine and be happy.
Enjoy!
