Another recipe shamelessly stolen from The Waiting Room but changed slightly, serve it with sesame potatoes and some garlic bread to wipe the plate.
Ingredients – Makes enough for 6
Olive oil
4 sweet pointed red peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
3 red onions, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
250ml of vegetable stock
500g organic spinach
250g ricotta cheese
Dried egg pasta sheets, I used 15
300ml of good bechamel sauce, make your own if you want!
300g of vegetarian mature cheddar cheese, grated
Freshly grated nutmeg, don’t use ready ground
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C, slightly lower for a fan assisted oven.
Add a little olive oil to a large roasting tray and place in the oven for a few minutes.
Place the chunks of red pepper and all the red onion in the roasting tray, turn the veg to cover in the hot oil and place in the oven for around an hour, turning every 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it in case it starts to burn.
Remove the roasted red pepper and onions from the oven and set to one side.
In a large pan, gently fry the onion in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes then add the minced garlic.
Stir and fry for a few minutes until the onion is soft but not brown.
Add the vegetable stock and the spinach, stir until the spinach has wilted.
Add the red pepper and onions to the spinach mix along with the ricotta and give it all a good stir.
Add half the cheese to the bechamel sauce and stir to combine.
Layer the mix in a deep oven dish alternating between that and the pasta sheets, I did three layers ending on a layer of pasta.
Pour the bechamel and cheese mixture on top of the pasta and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the sauce.
Grate as much nutmeg over the cheese as you like!
Bake in the oven for about an hour, make sure the pasta doesn’t burn but the cheese goes brown and gooey!
