Cheeky ricotta, fennel and sausage lasagne
Made with tasty sausage meat and creamy ricotta, this recipe brings a new twist on traditional lasagne. Recipe and image from Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Batch Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole (£22, Bloomsbury). Photography: © Haarala Hamilton
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 30 mins
plus 50 mins to cook immediately or 1 hour 40 to bake from frozen
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 12 good-quality pork sausages, meat squeezed out
- 50g salted butter
- 2 leeks, thinly sliced
- 2 fennel bulbs, finely diced
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 4 thyme sprigs
- salt and pepper
- 50g plain flour
- 700ml chicken stock
- 250ml double cream
- 200g baby spinach, washed
- freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
- 500g ricotta
- 2 lemons, zest
- 400g dried lasagne sheets
- 100g cheddar, grated
- green salad and garlic baguette, to serve (optional)
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6.
Step 2
Heat a large sauté pan over a high heat and add the sausage meat. Use a spatula to break it up into small chunks, then fry for 7-8 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind, and set aside in a bowl.
Step 3
Turn the heat to medium. Add butter to the pan, then the leeks and fennel. Fry for 5-6 minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the garlic and the herb sprigs and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 4
Spoon the flour into the vegetable mix and stir. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir regularly, until thickened. Gradually add the chicken stock, bringing to the boil between each addition and ensuring everything is mixed in.
Step 5
Stir in the double cream and spinach, then mix to combine. Season generously and add a grating of nutmeg. Add the sausage meat back to the pan and discard the whole herbs.
Step 6
In a separate bowl, stir together all the ricotta, the lemon zest and a large pinch each of salt and pepper.
Step 7
To assemble, divide the sausage filling and ricotta between two 20 x 20cm oven-safe dishes, layering them up between lasagne sheets (start with a layer of sausage filling, then pasta sheets, then ricotta and so on, finishing with a layer of ricotta). Sprinkle with equal amounts of the cheese.
Step 8
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or freeze the cooled, unbaked lasagne, wrapped tightly in clingfilm, for up to 3 months.
Step 9
To bake from frozen, remove the clingfilm and cover with foil. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5 and bake for 1 hour. Remove the foil and bake for a further 30-40 minutes.
