Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

This one is a great winter meal. I find it a lot easier to whack most of the filling ingredients into the oven rather than standing over the stove, frying off onion and garlic etc. Feel free to vary the vegetables you use too.

By Angela Stafford July 19, 2013

This Lasagne is rich in flavour owing to the roasting of the vegetables - especially the garlic. Yum! You could also add mushrooms and/or squash. I don't add a bechamel sauce because I like to keep it simple but if you prefer you can add this on top of each layer of pasta. This can be made with gluten-free lasagna sheets too.

Ingredients

1 head garlic - leave skins on
2 medium-sized red onions - peeled and quartered
2 large capsicums - halved and de-seeded
2 medium-sized eggplants - pricked with a fork; leave the skins on
800g peeled, chopped pumpkin
450g peeled, chopped sweet potato
2 medium-sized zucchinis, sliced thickly
oil to coat
sea salt to season
900g bottle of passata or 2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water - I pour the water into the passatta bottle and shake it to get the remaining sauce out.
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes - optional
1 bunch of basil leaves - roughly chopped
Lasagne sheets - (approx 400g)
grated cheese - for topping (about 1 cup)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan-forced or 180 convection.
On a large, lined oven tray, lay out your vegetables and spray or brush with a little oil.
Sprinkle with sea salt (don't worry about salting the garlic and eggplant as you will peel those).
Roast in the oven until vegetables are charred and soft. They will be ready at different times. First, the garlic, capsicum zucchini and onion will be ready. Take them out and leave the others in until they are done. Make sure your eggplant is nice and squishy. Rubbery eggplant will ruin your dish.
Place your pumpkin and sweet potato into a large mixing bowl. Smash the pieces with a fork. Don't completely mash them, just break them down a little.
In a food processor, pulse the onion, capsicum, zucchini and flesh from the eggplant. Add to the mixing bowl with the other vegetables.
Now to make your sauce, place the passata, garlic, basil, sun-dried tomatoes (if using) water and a little salt. Blend until smooth and then add to the mixing bowl.
Stir your lasagna filling until the consistency is even.
Take a large baking dish (approx. 33cm x 25cm) and spoon a thin layer of filling onto the bottom. Doing this will ensure that your bottom layer of pasta is cooked.
Now lay the lasagna sheets and filling in layers until it is all used up. Make sure you finish with the filling or you will have hard pasta at the top.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Cover the top of the lasagna with a layer of grease-proof paper and then cover the whole thing in foil. This will stop the cheese from burning before the pasta is cooked. During the last 10 minutes of cooking time, remove this top. Make sure you use baking paper and not just foil. The foil will not only stick to the cheese but it is not good to have next to your food because of the aluminium breaking down and getting into the meal.
Bake the Lasagna for 1 hour. Stick a knife into the pasta to make sure it is soft before you take it out.
Serve with a salad and enjoy!