So what’s in your fridge? Most of the dishes I make come from ingredients that I just find in our pantry, fridge or garden. Sometimes I really run out of ideas of what food to cook especially for my kid, but you just have to look around and experiment.
When I made this, I had corn, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, flour, milk, butter & cheese. I didn’t have pasta sheets, ground beef or even tomato sauce, so I had to think of something and I used longganisa from Cagayan instead. Longganisa is a type of sausage made in the Philippines. 🙂
Okay, secret’s out. My husband taught me this method. For the corn, the best and yummiest way to cook it is to boil it in milk and cinnamon for 10-15 minutes. These will make the corn tasty, juicy and sweet – way better than your regular corn.
Next is the lasagna. Start off with slicing your vegetables into really thin rounds. It’s best to do this using a mandolin but if you don’t have one, a really sharp reliable knife will do. You can use other vegetables for this too like eggplant or potato.
Make a bechamel sauce with equal parts flour, butter and milk. You can adjust the consistency with milk depending on your preference. Layer the ingredients in a baking pan and start the first layer with your vegetables rounds. Add the bechamel sauce next then shred the longganisa with your hands and spread over the sauce.
Repeat all layers until you fill the pan. You can add mushrooms too in between but I put it on the last layer because I only had few ones.
Finish the last layer with bechamel sauce and spread cheese on top. Whatever cheese you have at home will surely be perfect for this. In my case, I had havarti slices so that’s what I used. I just tore it into pieces and sprinkled on top.
Bake the pan for 45 minutes at 180°C or until golden brown. You can sprinkle chopped herbs on top before serving like rosemary, oregano, thyme or parsley. We had rosemary in our garden so that’s what I used.
Serve the corn and lasagna together. Make sure to cool the lasagna before serving to keep the layers and the form, unless you’re too hungry to wait then that would be fine too! 🙂 Find the whole recipe below.
Corn
2 pcs corn, husk removed
1 liter milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Bechamel Sauce
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp milk from corn (contains nutmeg already)
adjust nutmeg, salt & pepper to taste
Lasagna
1 pc zucchini, sliced thinly
1 pc carrot, sliced thinly
3-4 pcs longganisa, skin removed
1/4-1/2 cup button mushrooms, but any kind will do as well
- Place corn in a sauce pan and pour milk until covered.
- Sprinkle nutmeg and boil for 10-15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- For the bechamel sauce, melt butter in a pan.
- Add the flour and cook until a bit brown.
- Add in milk from the corn and mix with a whisk until no more lumps visible. Just adjust milk until your desired consistency.
- Add in more nutmeg, salt & pepper if necessary depending on your taste.
- Prepare an 8×8 inch baking pan.
- Put the carrots and zucchini as the first layer. Pour some bechamel sauce as a second layer. Spread some longganisa on top of the sauce then lastly add the mushrooms.
- Repeat all layers until you fill the baking pan. Finish with bechamel on top and cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool and let it set before serving.
- Serve together with the corn and sprinkle herbs on top.
Balay Paaralan 