Pesto Rosso Lasagne

~ Amy Sheppard

I love lasagne, I think most people do. There is something really satisfying about building up layers of food. The only problem is, it takes a really long time to make!

There are quite a few components all needing their own pan – and that means dishes, lots of dishes. I wanted to come up with a quick, mid week lasagne that is easy to put together.

This meat free meal is a celebration of the tomato!! This innocent looking dinner packs in tons of flavour, with minimal work – sun dried tomato pesto, vine ripened tomatoes and intense passata. This,combined with mozzarella and the cheddar cheese is incredible!

This dinner takes 10 minutes to put together, then you can just pop it in the oven and forget about it. Once you have tried this, I’m pretty sure this will become a regular in your house as it has in mine.

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Feeds 4

  • 500g Italian herb Passata
  • 1 ball mozzarella
  • 6 medium sized tomatoes (a few more if they are small)
  • 190g jar of Red pesto (pesto rosso)
  • 10 dried lasagne sheets
  • 3 medium handfuls of baby spinach
  • 50g cheddar cheese
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Drizzle of olive oil

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  1. Heat the oven to 200C
  2. Place the lasagne sheets in a bowl and drizzle in olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. Pour over boiling water and leave to stand for 5 minutes until tender.
  3. Pour the passata into a large mixing bowl. Add the jar of pesto. Fill the empty jar of pesto up with cold water by roughly a third, put the lid back on and shake. This will mix the remaining pesto in the jar with the water. Pour the water in the mixing bowl. Season and stir.
  4. Slice the tomatoes and set aside. Cut the mozzarella ball in half then slice each half into roughly 8 pieces.
  5. Lay 2 lasagne sheets (you may need to tear some off a third sheet) at the bottom of an oven proof baking dish so that it is covered. Lay a third of the tomato slices evenly on top of the lasagne. Place a third of the mozzarella pieces between the tomato slices. Roughly tear up a handful of spinach and sprinkle it over the tomatoes and mozzarella. Pour a quarter of the tomato sauce over the spinach and careful move it around so that it covers the whole layer.
  6. Place another layer of pasta over the top of the sauce and repeat the tomato, mozzarella, spinach and sauce layers.
  7. Repeat this process one final time before topping with another pasta layer, and thin layer of sauce. Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese over the top.
  8. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until the cheese topping is crispy and bubbling. Serve with shredded, crisp, iceberg lettuce.