Elaborate Valentine's Day Goat's cheese vegetarian lasagne

As most people are aware, this week contained Valentine's Day. Aside from many hilarious facebook statuses, my Valentine's day was spent without my boyfriend (Tuesday night - just not practical). This naturally called for a compensatory food frenzy with some friends;  home-made lasagne with rocket salad, garlic ciabatta and belgian chocolate brownie pudding (Sainsbury's) with Haagen Dazs 'Pralines and cream'. Oh and some Marlborough Savignon Blanc. The lasagne turned out amazingly with the indulgent combination of goat's cheese, sour cream, pesto, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. It was too good not to talk about...

Lasagne
The lasagne we made consisted of 4 layers between pasta sheets (it gets quite complicated) but the results were well worth it (see picture). The idea was to re-create a legendary lasagne created by my flatmate whilst she was living in Australia which involved mushrooms and feta. Our goat's cheese version however is as follows;

Ingredients (a lengthy list), Serves 4.

• Pack of fresh lasagne sheets

Layer 1

• 1 x 400g Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Fresh baby spinach (several handfuls)
• 1-2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil

Layer 2

• 300ml sour cream
• 250g soft goat's cheese

Layer 3

• 250g Chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 1 x Red onion, diced
• 1 x clove garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Layer 4 - Pesto 

• 60g Fresh basil
• 45g Pine nuts
• 150ml olive oil
• 1 x tsp salt
• Pepper to season

NB: this layer can also include parmesan cheese (around 20g) but was omitted for vegetarian reasons, alternatively replace this step with decent shop bought fresh pesto (Sainsbury's/Tesco etc.) 

Method 
Layer 1 
Add the chopped tomatoes to a pan and heat on a medium heat for several minutes until simmering. Next add the handfuls of baby spinach (I used around 3 handfuls) stir, and place a lid on the pan. After 2-3 mins the spinach should be wilted and can be mixed in fully to the tomatoes. Take off the heat and set aside.

Layer 2
Pour sour cream into a bowl and crumble in half of the goat's cheese (125g). Mix together well although small lumps of cheese remaining are fine. Set aside.

Layer 3
Gently heat the onions in the olive oil on a low-medium heat for 5mins/until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and gently cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the onions and cook on a medium heat until the mushrooms are lightly cooked (approx 3 mins). Set mix aside.

Layer 4
Roughly chop all the basil and place in a plastic measuring jug. Add the salt and olive oil and blend (we used a handheld blender) until a rough mixture. Add the pine nuts and re-blend briefly (only lightly breaking up the nuts). Season with pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees. Prepare lasagne sheets as according to the packet instructions and place the first sheet in an oven dish of around the same size. Place the layers from 1-4 on top of the first sheet and place a second sheet on top of the final layer (layer 4). Repeat this layering on the second pasta sheet and again cover with a third sheet. Ensure there is some remaining layer 2 mixture (sour cream/goat's cheese) for the top of sheet 3 and spread evenly. Crumble the other 125g of goat's cheese on top of the mix and season with pepper.

Put in the oven for 20 mins, checking the cheese on top browns but does not burn. Serve with undressed rocket (unless you want a dressing but with all that cheese it didn't seem necessary).

Result - Amazingly tasty and rich lasagne that probably accounted for all our calories for the week. This recipe seems complicated but it is definitely worth it if you are feeling extravagant (which I usually am with food).  Also try substituting the goat's cheese for another cheese like feta.