Spring Lasagna

Hello All. Sorry I have been away for so long. To be perfectly honest, I was in a real cooking rut. That's not to say I wasn't cooking, I just wasn't cooking anything new. Just my old stand by's. I was uninspired and down on my kitchen creativity. Meanwhile my little garden has flourished, and I will be doing some re-potting this weekend, then I will post some pictures of my growing collection of herbs (which were used for the first time last night) and new veggies. Anyway, back to cooking. After trolling my favorite recipe haunts for days trying to whip up some inspiration, I found a recipe to revamp and revive my kitchen spirits. Here is the original recipe from Yahoo's Shine Food, Caramelized Onion Lasagna. And here is my version of the fabulous spring pasta dish.

Spring Lasagna:

Onion Filling
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large Vidalia onions
1 Small Yellow onion
3 medium portobello mushroom caps
1/2 cup beef stock wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper

Spinach & Cheese Filling
4 cups spinach
1 15 oz container of nonfat ricotta cheese
1 heaping tbsp of fat free plain yogurt (I used the Greek variety)
1 handful of chopped fresh basil (from my garden!)
1 teaspoon salt

White Sauce
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fat fat milk
1 tsp salt
2 ounces soft goat cheese

12 whole wheat lasagna noodles

Cut the onions into thin slices. Heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat and add sliced onions. Allow onions to just sit and cook, stirring occasionally until they are extremely tender and golden with a little brown, about 25-30 minutes. In the mean time. Boil water and cook noodles to al dente. When the onions are all golden and delicious, hit them with a little bit of salt and pepper, and chop and add mushrooms. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes then add beef stock, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir together and salt and pepper to taste (if it needs more). In a blender or food processor mix together ricotta, spinach, yogurt, salt and basil. Blend until creamy and bright spring green. Then make the sauce, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat and whisk in the flour. Add the milk and whisk for about a minute until thick and creamy, then stir in salt and cheese. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover the bottom of a large glass baking dish with 1/2 cup of the sauce, then a layer of noodels, then half the ricotta mixture, then 1/3 the onion mixture, spoon another 1/2 cup of sauce on top, then do another noodle layer, then the other half of the ricotta, and another 1/3 of the onion mixture, then 1/2 cup of sauce, then the last noodle layer, the rest of the onions and the rest of the sauce. Bake for 30 minutes uncovered and allow to stand out for 5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy.

Happy Eating