To make a chicken and roast butternut lasagne for four, you will need:
4 chicken breasts
1 large butternut
3 onions
4 to 6 cloves of garlic
10 to 12 sheets of lasagne pasta
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 slices of bread
150g Parmesan cheese
300g mozzarella cheese
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper
Big bunch of fresh parsley
Basil leaves
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. YOU’LL BE amazed how much hanging-around time you save by always doing this first. Start by peeling the butternut, then cut it into rings 20mm thick. Throw away the seeds. With the flat of a heavy knife, crush and then peel the garlic cloves. Peel and thickly slice the onions. Rip the basil leaves off their stems. Wash the parsley and basil in running water, shake dry, then finely chop with a sharp knife and reserve in a bowl.
Debone and skin the chicken breasts. You could, of course, buy breasts already prepared. Slice the breast meat into regular sections about 15mm in width.
Using a heavy-bottomed frying pan, lightly sauté the chicken strips in a little extra-virgin olive oil. Remove and reserve for later in the proceedings.
Get a 4L pan of lightly salted water up to a rolling boil. Cook the raw pasta sheets for the time recommended on the packet. Remove and reserve, taking care not to break them.
Take a glass oven dish, arrange the butternut and onion in it and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle a little coarsely ground black pepper and then roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or as long as it takes for the vegetable to soften. When done, remove and reserve.
Using the same oven dish in which you roasted the vegetables, pour in a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil. Layer the base with boiled pasta sheets, then arrange a thick layer of roasted butternut, onion and sautéed chicken on it, plus a thin slice or two of mozzarella. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the chopped herbs over. Make a second and a third layer exactly the same way until all ingredients are allocated.
Now, very quickly in a food processor, combine the bread and Parmesan and layer this thinly on top of the lasagne. Stick the dish into the still hot oven and let it bake for 40 minutes or so. Since ovens and thermostats are prone to variability, check the lasagne before removing. The top should be brown and crunchy.
Serve this bloody marvellous meal with a heavy red wine and a light green salad. – David Basckin |fw
