Sausage, chard, and lemon lasagna

I love any excuse to add lemon to my recipes so when I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living’s March 2011 edition, I had to try it. My vegetarian friends will like my adaptation because I removed the meat without losing any flavor!

Ingredients

Bay leaf

Carrot (small/medium)

Celery (1 stalk)

Shallot (or small onion)

3 cups milk + 6 tbsp (1%)

Cornstarch (3 tbsp)

Parmesan (grated, 1 cup)

Morningstar sausage-style recipe crumbles (16 oz. This is 1 1/3 bags. )

Swiss chard (1 bunch)

Lemon (1)

4 no-boil lasagna noodles

Black pepper

Salt (optional)

Roughly chop the carrot, celery and shallot. Pour the milk into a pan, add the vegetables and bay leaf, then heat the mixture gently on the lowest heat possible.

Slice the lemon into thin slices, place into a pan, cover with a few inches of water and heat. Once the water boils, reduce the heat and simmer the lemons for 9 minutes. Remove the cooked slices from the water and dry them on a paper towel or two.

Heat a third pan with some cooking spray, add 16 oz of frozen Morningstar sausage-style recipe crumbles, and brown. Once the “sausage” is cooked through, remove it from the pan and put aside.

Wash and chop the chard while the sausage browning and (to save time cleaning up) use the same pan to sauté the chard. Place the lid on the pan to begin with so the chard steams a little. Be sure to keep it moving and cook until most of the moisture has been cooked off.

With the sausage and chard now cooked, it’s time to tackle the white sauce.

Remove the vegetables from the milk with a slotted spoon, raise the heat to low-medium, and grind in some black pepper. Mix the cornstarch and 6 tbsp of cold milk in a measuring cup and once they are fully combined, add 2-3 tbsp of the heated milk from the pan. Drizzle the cornstarch/milk mixture into the heated milk and stir continually until it starts to thicken. Pour in ¾ cup of parmesan, continue to stir until everything is combined, then turn off the heat. Stir in the chard and add some more pepper to taste. I find parmesan quite salty but add some salt if you think it needs it.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. It’s finally time to assemble the ingredients in a 8-inch square Pyrex or ceramic dish.

Cover the bottom of the dish with a thin layer of sauce then add 2 noodles, half the sausage, a few of the less-attractive lemon slices, and half the remaining sauce. Repeat (noodles, sausage, sauce) and decorate with the rest of the lemon slices. Cover with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top and broil until bubbly and brown.

Serves 4.

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