HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY - 1ST JUNE

1925 the World Conference for the Well Being of Children proclaimed 1st June to be the International Children's Day. This is one of the most loved holidays back home in Bulgaria. It has always been a big deal over there and still is today. In my childhood all cars were driving with

SPINACH AND COURGETTE LASAGNE

I have been a Riverford customer for years and have always enjoyed experimenting with the ingredients I receive regularly. My CIME DI RAPA LASAGNE is one of my husband's favourite meals to date and it is still in the top 3 of my most read recipes! Following a 4.5 hour round trip to Heathrow airport (it should've only taken me 45 minutes each way!) to collect my mum last Friday I was nicely surprised to come home and find my latest box awaiting me by my front door. I love courgettes. Any recipe will do  - fried, baked, cooked..... even raw occasionally, I simply love them. Hubby however, is a different story. He only likes them fried. Baked - NO, NO, NO. Raw - even bigger NOOOOOOO. Cooked - he is unsure about that one. Recently I have been frying loads of courgettes but I really fancied something a bit different. So following that horrendous drive on a Friday afternoon before a Bank Holiday when half-term starts (Why on earth did none of this occur to me last month when my mum was booking her flight?!) seeing Bob's recipe for Courgette & Spinach Lasagne made me smile. The evening looked a bit brighter all of a sudden. Unfortunately I had to wait until Monday evening to try it out but the wait was worth it. I mean, this is a seriously good recipe and with fresh organic produce you can hardly go wrong. In fact, you cannot go wrong with this recipe. The spinach and the courgettes compliment each other beautifully and the rich velvety sauce is divine. My mouth is watering just thinking (and writing) about it. I promise you this is a recipe you must try. And then tell me if I was right (okay, I am sure I will be right, but I really hope I get some comments on my blog).

Ingredients: *

2 courgettes
a bag of spinach (kale, cime di rapa....)
1 small onion
200gr cream cheese
100 gr grated cheese, divided
1 egg
400 gr milk
35gr butter
35gr plain flour
1 bay leaf
pinch nutmeg
salt
pepper

Method:

Peel the courgettes and cut them into coins. Lightly fry them and set aside on a kitchen towel to cool down. Fry the finely chopped onion until soft and translucent. Chop the spinach and add to the onion until just wilted, 2-3 minutes. Add the cream cheese, some of the grated cheese, freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix well. Leave to cool down.
In the meantime make the white sauce. Heat the milk either on the hob with the bay leaf or like me, in the microwave for 2 minutes. In a saucepan melt the butter and add the flour to make the roe. Keep the heat on medium and pour the hot milk while whisking for about a minute until all lumps disappear. Do not worry if some lumps remain, once the dish is baked it won't matter. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens. If it thickens too much, add a splash of milk to it. To give the sauce its velvety texture take the saucepan off the heat and add the egg. Stir until incorporated, add the rest of the grated cheese and leave to melt. Preheat the oven to 180C fan. To assemble: in a shallow casserole dish layer half of the courgettes. Lasagne sheets go on top, followed by a third of the white sauce then half of the spinach mix. Repeat with the rest of the courgettes, lasagne sheets, another third of the white sauce, the rest of  the spinach mix, more lasagne sheets. Cover it really well with the last of the sauce and sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Pop into the hot oven for about half an hour and enjoy! It makes great leftover lunch too.

XoXo
Desi in the Kitchen

* This is not a collaborative post. The recipe is adapted from Bob's recipe Courgette & Spinach Lasagne.