Recipe: Linda’s Lockdown Lasagna

Ingredients 

-12 lasagne noodle sheets, cooked al-dente

-1lb of ground chicken

 -2 large handfuls of fresh baby arugula

- 1 small can of diced tomatoes, drained and halved 

-Lemon zest from 1-2 lemons

-1 large bunch of kale or spinach, or both!

-1 large yellow onion

-4-5 cloves of garlic

-1 large handful of fresh basil leaves

-1 cup of mushrooms, sliced (any kind- mixed is fine)

-1 cup of white wine

-Olive oil

-Salt and pepper to taste 

-Dried oregano or thyme

-3 eggs

-1 cup or so of Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese if you don’t have

-Grated parmesan

-2 cups of bechamel sauce  (4 Tbsp of butter, 4 Tbsp of flour, 1-¼ cup of heated full fat milk or cream, salt & pepper)

Directions

-To make bechamel sauce: melt butter in a pot on medium heat. Whisk in flour, making a paste.  Slowly add in warmed milk, whisking away. Sauce will thicken as it gets hotter. Add salt and pepper..continue whisking to boiling point and remove from heat.

-Preheat oven to Bake: 375

-Add a olive oil to a large skillet and on medium heat, cook up the ground chicken with the tomatoes and arugula and lemon zest.  Add a little S+P.  remove from heat and put in a bowl. (about 10 minutes)

-Add sliced onion, garlic, basil, mushrooms, to the large skillet with some olive oil to coat all the veggies and saute till onions are translucent and shrooms are soft.  Then, add chopped up kale and white wine. Mix and cover skillet until kale (or spinach) has cooked. Add S+P and whatever dried herbs you like.

-beat 3 eggs and the ricotta together in a bowl. 

-In a rectangular baking vessel: coat the bottom and sides with olive oil

-Put down 3-4 cooked lasagne noodles to cover bottom of pan

-First layer: cooked ground chicken mixture (the one set aside in the bowl)

Cover with bechamel sauce and sprinkle with your parmesan cheese

-2nd layer: put down another 3-4 cooked lasagne noodles ( on top of chicken mixture)

Add all of the veggie mixture that is in the large skillet (or as much as can fit)

Pour ricotta and egg mixture over veggies. Sprinkle with cheese

-3rd layer: put down last of the lasagne noodles (to cover veggie layer)

-Cover with bechamel sauce and generously top with cheese and perhaps some sliced tomatoes. Cover with foil and put in hot oven 

Cook time: 30 minutes-after 20 minutes, remove foil to encourage browning.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes