Wild Mushroom Lasagne

This wild mushroom (or in season mushroom) lasagne recipe should be made with the best quality seasonal mushrooms and the best British cheeses. You can of course buy wild mushrooms from a supermarket, but on a warm day go out armed into the countryside, to well known mushroom spots, with friends or family and a basket and a ‘mushroom spotters’ guide. Having all the other ingredients ready at home, and going to collect the wild mushrooms yourself, makes this an extra-ordinary dish to relish when it is cooked and ready to eat, which doesn’t take long. This farmhouse style mushroom lasagne is slightly luxurious, but it is ideal for something ‘special’ and when you use vegetarian cheese, it is a perfect vegetarian meal.

Wild Mushroom Lasagne Recipe

Recipe Ingredients:

800g Best Wild Mushrooms (or any in season mushroom)
20 ripe on the vine tomatoes
1 large red onion (chopped fine)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of sweet smoked paprika
1 tbsp of tomato puree
3 cloves Garlic (chopped fine)
3 sprigs of Thyme (chopped fine)
50g flatleaf parsley (chopped)
50g of basil leaves
500g fresh lasagne pasta sheets
3 large handfuls of Spinach leaves
1 tsp grated nutmeg
250g Caerphilly Cheese roughly crumbled (vegetarian)
250g Double Gloucester Cheese grated (vegetarian)
50g butter
375ml Single Cream
olive oil to drizzle over
sea salt and ground black pepper to season

Recipe Method:

If the tomato skins are tough, score the tops with a knife in a cross shape, boil for a minute in hot water, plunge into ice water and then peel them, if in season and young and tender there is no need. Pull the tomatoes off the vine. Remove the cores with a paring knife. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place in a saucepan with the tomato puree and basil and 1 tsp of water. Cook over a medium to high heat, stirring frequently, until the liquid which develops has reduced by half, about 20 minutes.

Put a deep saucepan with some oil on and add the spinach until wilted and cooked, it will wilt by about two-thirds. Grate in the nutmeg and a pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper to season.

Fry the mushrooms in a hot pan with the olive oil until brown. Put in the finely chopped garlic, onion, parsley, paprika and thyme, fry together and season with sea salt and ground black pepper. Fry for a few minutes, until the onions are translucent and then add the cooked vine tomatoes, and the wilted spinach, fry for a few minutes more, mixing everything together, then put to one side.

In a pan of boiling water cook for 2 minutes the sheets of fresh pasta until softened, then drain.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Butter a deep oven proof dish, then grate in some Double Gloucester cheese on the bottom. Put a layer of softened pasta sheets in, add a layer of mushrooms, tomato and spinach, then crumble in some Caerphilly cheese. Add another layer of pasta, pour over a generous amount of single cream, grate over some double Gloucester and repeat the layering process until all the ingredients are used up. Add a final layer of pasta sheets, drizzle over some olive oil, grate a generous portion of Double Gloucester cheese over the top and pour over the last of the single cream (spreading it evenly with a knife).

Season the top with salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes then serve the wild mushroom lasagne with a little salad.