One thing with pesto is that if you need to make a large batch it can become fairly expensive fairly fast. The great thing about this pesto is that it's made with frozen spinach. Spinach is a fraction of the price of basil. For this recipe you need two bags of spinach around 40cents/each. In the 90's, and when I was a kid spinach had a "bad name" to it. It also led to me not really knowing how to use it in food, and spinach itself (especially frozen) isn't exactly a delicacy in taste. So it's all about the flavoring and knowing how to use it.
These days I love spinach! It's healthy, high proteins, has a great taste, and it's inexpensive. So if you like me had a prejudice towards spinach, this recipe is the best way to change your opinion!
If you want to make pesto the real/fancier version, use basil, in which case you need 2-3pots.
Pesto
2 small bags of frozen spinach
1 garlic clove
1 bag of pine nuts (the less expensive version is to use almonds)
1dl of grated Parmesan cheese or Grana Padano
1-2dl olive oil
Salt to taste
I start this recipe by turning the oven to 220C and preparing the pesto. Begin with melting the frozen spinach. Put them in a pan on low heat. Once all the ice has melted and it's a soft green mush you can take the pan off the heat to cool down.
Meanwhile the spinach is melting, start by slicing mushrooms and putting them in a pan on high heat. Mushrooms have a lot of water in them, which is why high heat is preffered. Also thinly slice a garlic (this is for flavoring the mushrooms).
Lasagna
2 boxes of mushrooms (400grams total)
dried oregano
1 garlic clove
Once the mushrooms start to give away water and shrink, add some butter, add the sliced garlic clove and dried oregano. Keep the heat high until the mushrooms start to turn brown. Set them aside.
Time for the white sauce = the bechamel. This is what most people struggle with, because if you don't pay attention it tends to get lumpy or burn. If you prefer to buy a ready sauce, that works too. However I haven't found a gluten free ready sauce, which is why I decided to try this myself. I use a teflon kettle, they are super practical when it comes to heating anything with milk for example, because it keeps the milk from burning to the bottom of the pan. Now that you start making the sauce nothing else should be going on: Your mushrooms are ready and waiting, your spinach is cooling down. It's all you, the stove and the bechamel. Give it your full attention.
Gluten free Bechamel (white sauce)
3 tbs butter
0,7dl Gluten free flour
1L milk
1dl grated Parmesan or Grana Padano
salt & pepper
Start by melting 3tbs of butter. Add about 0,7dl of gluten free flour. This is a little less per 1l milk than in a regular recipe because gluten free flour is more starchy --> It become thicker with less. Mix in the flour in the melted butter over low heat, it will start to look like the picture below.
Finally start to slowly add the milk while you're whisking. Whisk whisk whisk whisk away, never ever stop. As you've added the 1l milk it might feel a little loose, and here is the most common misstake. You think "oh it's gonna need a little while to heat up to thicken, I'll just..." And then the sauce is ruined. The process of when it will start to thicken is very fast, not to mention how fast milk burns. So stand by the stove, keep stiring until the sauce is thick like a gravy. Then you can turn the heat of and put the pan to the side.As you do that, add the grated parmesan cheese and flavor with salt & pepper.
Now you can make the lasagna, i start with a layer of bechamel, then a layer of lasagna plates, on top of that a layer of mushrooms + bechamel, another layer of lasagna plates, an additional layer of mushrooms + bechamel. Top the whole thing of with shredded mozzarella cheese and put it in the oven for about 40min (220C).
Meanwhile it's time to finnish the pesto now that the melted spinach has cooled down.
Pesto
2 small bags of frozen spinach
1 garlic clove
1 bag of pine nuts (the less expensive version is to use almonds)
1dl of grated Parmesan cheese or Grana Padano
1-2dl olive oil
Salt to taste
Put all ingredients in a bowl. I usually press the garlic, and I chop the pine nuts before adding to the spinach. Use a bamix (sauvasekoitin) to "puree" the wole thing. It's up to you how purée like you want it, I want it to have texture. So in fact I also add some extra chopped pine nuts after to get some bites in my pesto. Anyways that's how easy it is. Flavor the pesto with salt, and put it in the fridge to rest while your lasagna is in the oven. When it's time to serve, take the pesto out, and usually you have to add a little olive oil to losen up the consitency. If you prefer to use less oil, you can add a little water instead.
Finally serve a piece of you lasagna with the pesto. Enjoy the fresh cool taste of the pesto with the warm creamy lasagna!
