Spinach, ricotta and wet garlic cannelloni

I'd never come across wet garlic before - the veg box is full of surprises. You love going through it and seeing what we've got for the week (mainly to make sure there's some broccoli).

This makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a small tub of ricotta cheese
half a large bag of spinach, washed
an onion, finely chopped
a bulb of wet garlic, finely chopped (I was a bit overenthusiastic and used two, and we may not have been pleasant to meet for a couple of days...)
about 8 lasagne sheets (fresh or dried)
a tin of tomatoes
2 bay leaves
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a slug of olive oil
black pepper
grated cheese to go on top

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, get your tomato sauce going. You could mess about with shallots or onions etc, or you could just tip a tin of tomatoes into a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a couple of bay leaves, and leave it to simmer down for 15 minutes while you get on with the cannelloni.

Fry the onion and garlic gently in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the spinach, and cook until it wilts. Take this mixture, and bung it in a food processor - give it a quick whizz until everything's chopped. Don't overdo it - you don't want a liquid.

Dump the ricotta cheese into a large bowl, break up with a spoon, and add the chopped-up onion/garlic/spinach mixture. Season to taste - you might need a little salt and a lot of black pepper.

Traditionally you'd stuff this into cannelloni tubes. But frankly life's too short to be faffing about with teaspoons or icing bags, no matter what Jamie et al tell you. Either use fresh lasagne sheets (a doddle), or dried (you'll need to par-boil them for 3 or 4 minutes until they're soft enough to roll up). Stick a line of filling in the middle of your lasagne sheet, roll it up, and sling it into an ovenproof dish.

Pour the tomato sauce over everything, top with some grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until everything's piping hot and the cheese is bubbling.

Chicken, leek and mushroom lasagne

The perfect food for a wintry day.

You'll need:

some cooked chicken (ideally 3 or 4 chicken thighs, or whatever you've got left from a roast)
any leftover gravy
3 or 4 large leeks, cleaned and sliced
an onion, sliced
some large mushrooms, sliced
lasagne sheets
about 1/3 pint milk
a knob of butter
a tablespoon of flour
freshly grated nutmeg, black pepper, mixed herbs
grated cheese

First of all, stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Then, saute the onion and leeks in a frying pan with some mixed herbs and olive oil until they soften. Remove from the pan, then do the same with the mushrooms (you may have to add a bit more olive oil).

Now comes the fun part - the layering in a baking dish. You'll need a layer of leek/onion/mushroom/cooked chicken, followed by a layer of pasta. If you have some gravy leftover from a roast, then you can drizzle this over each layer. How many layers you create depends on the size of your baking dish or tray, but you need to end with a pasta sheet on the top.

For a bechamel (white) sauce to smear over it all, you'll need to melt a knob of butter in a non-stick pan, and add a tablespoon of flour to it. Mix to a smooth paste, then gradually whisk in the milk, to avoid any lumps. Add some freshly grated nutmeg, and heat gently for 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens (you'll probably have to do a fair amount of stirring, so it doesn't catch on the bottom).

Pour the bechamel sauce over the top of the lasagne, and scatter over some grated cheese (the stronger the better). Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until the insides are bubbling and the lasagne sheets are fully cooked.

If you're short of time, don't forget you could use a small pot of creme fraiche instead of the bechamel sauce.

Vegetable lasagne

This rounded off a day of playing in tents (artfully constructed from a couple of blankets and some living room chairs), and a trip to the Winter Gardens in Sunderland. I think I prefer the bolognese version, but there were a whole load of veggies in the fridge desperate to be eaten.

You'll need:

2 onions, finely sliced
a pepper, sliced
a few mushrooms, quartered
a really large courgette (or a couple of smaller ones), sliced into rings
a carrot or two, sliced thinly lengthways
tin of chopped tomatoes
tomato puree
dried thyme, mixed herbs and black pepper
lots of grated cheese
sheets of lasagne (dried, not fresh)
1/4 pint of milk
a tablespoon of flour
a large knob of butter
grated nutmeg

Stick your oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, you need to make your tomato/vegetable sauce. It takes a while to simmer, so I did this at lunchtime, because I knew I wouldn't have time later on.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they're soft and translucent. Add the peppers and carrot, and fry until they soften, chucking in the mushrooms after a few minutes (you may need to add some extra olive oil).

Tip in the tin of tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree, and the thyme, mixed herbs and black pepper. Bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for ages - at least half an hour. It'll cope quite happily with up to 1.5 hours, but you'll probably need to add some extra water at some point.

Take your oven-proof dish, and cover the bottom with a layer of courgette slices. Top with half the tomato sauce, and a layer of lasagne sheets. Repeat - you'll end up with the pasta on the top.

You'll then need to make your white/bechamel sauce. Chuck the butter in a non-stick pan and let it melt. Add the flour, and mix to a smooth paste. Gently and gradually add the milk in small stages, beating any lumps in the paste out with a wooden spoon. Once all the milk's incorporated, grate a little nutmeg into the sauce, and leave on a very low heat to thicken (be careful it doesn't start to boil). If you haven't got time for all this shenanigans, you could always just use some creme fraiche.

Pour the sauce over the top of the lasagne sheets - ideally you want enough that it runs down the sides and into the lower layers. Season with lots of black pepper, sprinkle with lots of grated cheese, and put in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.

Eat while piping hot - it goes well with a crisp green salad.

Lasagne

Another freezing cold day, but it was livened up by real reindeer and an animatronic polar bear at Gateshead's Frost Fair.

There were no reindeer for tea, just a blast of 1970s lasagne (coincidentally, Hugh Fearnley Whearnley's got a good recipe for one in today's Guardian as well).

You'll need:

bolognese sauce - recipe here from August
some sheets of lasagne - you could probably go to town here and make your own, but ours was Morrisons value, and tasted no worse for that
lots of grated cheese (preferably mature cheddar)
black pepper
a bechamel sauce (the amount depends on how big your lasagne dish is - ours was A4-sized today)

For the bechamel, I used:

about 1/3 pint of full cream milk
a large knob of butter
a heaped tablespoon of flour
lots of freshly grated nutmeg

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan, and add the flour. Swish about until the butter has been absorbed into the flour - you've now got a mixture called a roux. Little by little, add the milk, making sure each time that it's absorbed into the roux - you want a really nice, smooth paste, with no lumps. Keep stirring, and gradually add all the milk. Grate some nutmeg into the sauce, and then heat until it thickens - you probably need to give it a good stir every minute or so.

Right. Stick the oven on at a sensibly high temperature - 180-200 degrees C. Now assemble the lasagne. Take one large squarish/rectangular dish (makes it easier when you've got rectangular sheets of pasta). Stick a layer of bolognese on the bottom, followed by a layer of pasta sheets. Repeat. Pour the bechamel sauce all over the top pasta sheet, and let it trickle down the layers. Sprinkle with grated cheese (you don't need a huge amount).

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or so - once the top is browned and bubbling it's ready. It goes well with a nice green salad, and maybe a bit of baguette (I suppose it should be garlic bread if you're being authentically retro...).