Back when L. was tiny, a cookbook writer - whose claim to culinary fame was her marriage to a famous actor (or comedian, I can't remember) - made the rounds of all the morning talk shows and was featured in all the magazines touting her book. Many of her recipes were based on the notion that vegetables could be sneakily hidden where children would not expect to find them. To me, this seemed a bad idea, both for her relationship with her kids as teens and adults, and for theirs with food in general. I have nothing against black bean brownies if the beans add moisture or texture to the cake, but I think it is dishonest not to let those who are eating them know about the mystery ingredient.
It seemed pretty obvious to me that, if vegetables were prepared so that they tasted really good and didn't make a huge fuss about it, adults and kids alike would want to eat them. Case in point: this lasagna. All the components are carefully seasoned separately and come together into a delicious autumn vegetable lasagna with punchy tarragon back notes. It is pretty. It is yummy. And there is cheese (use vegetarian cheese if you are not an ovo-lacto vegetarian). Why would I want to hide any of this?
But, if you still can't turn the odd particularly vegetable resistant child or dinner guest, I guess the beets do taste sort of meaty...
12 baby beets or 2 large ones
3 cups baby spinach leaves
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsps chopped tarragon leaves
1 tsp olive oil
12 dried lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups Béchamel sauce
3/4 + 1/4 cup grated Mozzarella
1/2 + 1/4 grated Parmesan
Preheat the oven to 400.
Wash the beets well, top and tail them. Place them in an oven safe dish along with 1/2 cup of water. Seal well with foil.
Place the unpeeled garlic cloves in some foil along with the olive oil.
Put both items in the oven and roast for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, remove the garlic from the oven and set aside. Small beets should also be ready, large beets will probably need an additional 20-30 minutes. You will know that your beets are ready when a knife stuck into the beet goes all the way to the center easily. Set the beets aside to cool.
Wash your spinach leaves and wilt them in the water that remains on the leaves after you have washed them. This will take just a few minutes. Mix them into the tomato sauce.
Cover your lasagan noodles with boiling water and set aside.
Make your Béchamel as directed in the recipe but use 1 1/2 cups of milk instead of 1 cup. Once it has thickened, add 3/4 cup of the Mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan and 1 Tbsp of the chopped tarragon. Stir until the cheese has melted. Set aside.
Remove the beets from their foil packet. Tip into a colander and place under running water. You should be able to rub the skins right off fairly easily. Slice the beets thinly and place in a bowl. Toss with some salt and the remaining tablespoon of chopped tarragon.
Pop the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins onto a chopping board. Chop finely, which will turn the roasted garlic into a paste. Add 1/3 of this to the beets and toss well to combine. Add the remaining 2/3 to the Béchamel and stir to combine.
Preheat the oven to 350. Drain your noodles. Line up all the components you have prepared.
Now, start layering.
Place 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of an oven safe dish. Follow with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles topped with 1/3 of the Béchamel and then 1/3 of the beets. Continue layering until you have used all of the ingredients and finishing up with a layer of Béchamel.
Top with the remaining cheeses and bake for 45 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil the top for a few minutes so that it turns golden brown and inviting looking as illustrated above.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes under a foil tent before cutting into it.
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