Swiss Chard, Mushroom and Lemon Lasagna

My old neighbors Nicole and Sean have a fabulous new home with lots and lots of yard space. Since I have zero green space where I live and have always wanted a little garden for myself, they kindly offered a little plot of land in their yard for me to grow things. Ain’t that grand!!

After planting my little seedlings over the weekend, Nicole sent me home with a whooooole bunch of Swiss chard, hence this recipe.

This lasagna recipe is particularly easy because I used good old no-boil lasagna noodles. You can use fresh lasagna noodles or regular dried lasagna noodles and cook the according to the package directions.

I also decided to make this vegetarian, but you could easily add in a pound of your favorite sausage in place of the mushrooms – just saute the meat until it’s cooked through and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

swiss chard, mushroom and lemon lasagna on FMITK

You’ll need milk, no-boil lasagna noodles, mushrooms, swiss chard, lemon, garlic, parmesan cheese and butter. Not pictured but still necessary: flour, salt and pepper.

Roughly chop the Swiss chard by rolling it up loosely and chopping into strips.

I decided to keep the mushrooms in large pieces to give the lasagna texture. Just halve them. I used a combination of baby portabellaos and button mushrooms.

It’s important to slice the lemons as thin as you can. If they’re too thick, they might taste too bitter.

Start with the white sauce – melt butter in a saucepan over high heat. Add flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and bring to a boil. Simmer for another minute then remove the pot from the heat. Add in the parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper and salt (I used truffle salt. Thanks, Trader Joe’s!).

Add the chopped chard to the sauce. Set aside.

Place the lemons in a small saucepan and cover with 3″ of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. This removes some of the bitterness in the pith (the white part) of the lemon. Use a slotted spoon to remove the lemons from the water and let drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Heat a skillet until very hot. Add in olive oil, mushrooms and garlic. Saute over high heat for 5-6 minutes, until browned.

Assembly time!

Begin with 1/4 cup of the sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Add two noodles, half the mushrooms and one cup of sauce. Repeat noodles + mushrooms + sauce.

Add a layer of lemons, a layer of noodles, the remaining sauce and top with a final layer of lemons. You should end up with these layers, from bottom to top:
1/4 cup sauce
2 noodles
1/2 of the mushrooms
1 cup of sauce
2 noodles
remaining 1/2 of mushrooms
1 cup of sauce
layer of lemons
2 noodles
remaining sauce
layer of lemons.

Wrap with parchment-lined foil and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Remove foil, top with remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, until cheese is golden brown and crispy.
You know how I feel about burnt cheese!!!!

Ta-da! Don’t be over anxious like me and cut into the lasagna right after it comes out of the oven, or all the insides spill out everywhere. Or, if you don’t care about that sort of thing, by all means… cut away.

Serve with a little side salad of arugula dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

adapted from martha
makes 4-6 servings in about 1 hour

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 ounces)
5 cups coarsely chopped Swiss chard (about 1 bunch)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb mushrooms, halved
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lemon, very thinly sliced
6 sheets no-boil lasagna noodles
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over high heat. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk. Bring the milk to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Remove the saucepan from heat and stir in 3/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used truffle salt) and 1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper. Stir in the chopped swiss chard and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a very hot skillet, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add in chopped garlic and mushrooms and saute over high heat for 6-8 minutes, until mushrooms are browned. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, add lemon slices and cover with about 3″ of water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the lemons to a paper towel-lined plate and let drain.

to assemble the lasagna

In a non-reactive (read: ceramic, stainless steel or glass) 8×8″ baking dish, layer the following (from bottom to top):

1/4 cup sauce
2 noodles
1/2 of the mushrooms
1 cup of sauce
2 noodles
remaining 1/2 of mushrooms
1 cup of sauce
layer of lemons
2 noodles
remaining sauce
layer of lemons

Cover with parchment-lined or non-stick foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with the remaining parmesan cheese. Broil for 3-5 minutes, until cheese is bubbling, browned and crispy. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving so the lasagna guts don’t spill out all over the place when you slice into it (like mine did. oops).

Serve with a side salad of arugula, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper.