McMoe's Winter Lasagna

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 500 g leaf spinach, frozen
• 1 onion(s)
• 4 tbsp butter
• some salt and pepper, white, mixed and black, from the mill
• 4 tbsp flour
• 800 ml vegetable stock
• 200 g whipping cream or 200 ml Cremefine for cooking
• some nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 500 g beetroot, cooked and vacuum-packed
• 2 apples (Topaz)
• 800 g Hokkaido pumpkin(s)
• 500 g lasagna sheets
• 250 g ricotta
• 80 g walnut kernels, chopped
• 100 g mountain cheese, freshly grated
• Butter for the mold

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 55 minutes

Thaw the spinach leaves. Peel and dice the onion, then chop the spinach leaves. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a non-stick pan and sauté the spinach for about 5 minutes. Season with a little salt and freshly ground mixed or black pepper. Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and sauté the diced onion until translucent. Then stir in the flour and sauté. While stirring, add the vegetable stock and the heavy cream or crème fraîche, and bring to a boil. Season the sauce with a little salt, freshly ground white pepper, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Slice the beetroot. Quarter the apples, remove the cores, and cut the apple quarters into wedges. Wash, halve, and deseed the pumpkin, then cut into wedges and then into leaves. Preheat the oven to 200°C (top/bottom heat) (180°C fan/convection oven). Grease a lasagna dish with a little butter. Spread about 3 tablespoons of sauce into the dish. Then layer all the prepared ingredients in the following order: lasagna sheets, spinach, pumpkin, sauce, lasagna sheets, beetroot and apples. Continue this process until all ingredients are used except the spinach, sauce, and lasagna sheets, which should be the last layer. Spread the ricotta in flakes over the last layer of spinach, then layer the last lasagna sheets on top and pour over the remaining sauce. Spread the chopped walnuts and grated alpine cheese over the lasagna. Bake the lasagna in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. There is also a Christmas version of this lasagna: replace the nutmeg with a pinch of cinnamon powder (if you don’t like nutmeg, you can safely omit it altogether) and use orange zest instead of lemon zest. You can also caramelize the chopped walnuts in a little honey or sugar and then sprinkle them over the finished lasagna. You can replace the spinach with kale.