Goats cheese, pumpkin and spinach lasagna

Goats cheese, pumpkin and spinach lasagna

One of my favourite things to cook is a risotto with goats cheese, butternut squash and spinach.

Goats cheese and squash are, in my opinion, two of the best ingredients on the planet and together a match made in heaven.

Last Sunday with the typical sinking feeling of dread that tomorrow is Monday and with the shops shut, I decided to cheer myself up, raid the kitchen for goodies and see what I could put together.

With my gatherings, I decided to do a lasagna version of my favourite risotto dish.

Sweet pumpkin (instead of butternut squash), tangy goats cheese, spinach and the addition of some creamy leeks, it was a delicious veggie take on the Italian classic.

Lets hope they’d agree!

Shopping list

1 small hokkaido pumpkin (or even a couple sweet potatoes/1 butternut squash)

bag of baby spinach

4 leeks

1 medium red onion

small tub of mascapone

parmesan

soft goats cheese

1 lemon

2x 400g canned tomatoes

dried lasagna sheets

ball of mozzerella

Firstly chop your pumpkin/squash into bite- size chunks and put on a roasting tray with olive oil and salt and roast until tender at about 200 degrees C.

Now set about making a tomato sauce. Finely chop a couple garlic cloves and in a large saucepan, fry in some olive oil. Add the cans of tomatoes and stir. Simmer on a medium heat until reduced. Season.

Finely slice the onion and leeks, sweat in a pan until softened and add the mascapone; goats cheese and a squeeze of lemon. Cook until eveything is well amalgamated.

Wilt the spinach in with the leeks and take off the heat.

NOW to start the layering.

Spoon a 1/4 of the tomato sauce into a large oven-proof dish and then layer on about 4 lasagna sheets.

Spread over a portion of the leek and spinach mixture, and some of the roasted pumpkin.

Add some more tomato sauce.

Repeat the process until everything is used up, finishing with a layer of lasagna sheets, tomato sauce and the sliced mozzerella and a generous grating of parmesan.

The oven should still be on from roasting the pumpkin so cover the lasagna with foil and bake for about 20 minutes and then remove the foil and bake until golden on the top. The foil is essential, at least in my oven, which attempts to obliterate anything I place inside it.

special guest, purple cloth

Serve with a simple green salad or, as I did, with some very simple slices of cucumber. You need that fresh crunch to cut through this extremely rich and creamy dish.

Enjoy!

Goat’s Cheese, Spinach and Pumpkin Risotto

crowd pleaser

This is one of my favourite things to cook as it has two ingredients I could not live without: goat’s cheese and pumpkin.

Being risotto, it is laborious with the endless stirring, but I actually rather enjoy it and it is somehow therapeutic, plus if you can manage the stirring you will always produce a beautiful dish at the end.

This risotto always goes down a treat and I’ll be sure to make it if I ever need to impress my dinner guests, as I had to the other evening when entertaining my boyfriend’s Aunt and Uncle. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint, and everyone helped themselves to seconds and even thirds!

This risotto in my mind is perfect with the creamy roasted squash and tangy cheese with unctuous rice. I like to add a squeeze of lemon at the end for an extra zing. I actually prefer to use a butternut squash (couldn’t find one in Berlin of course!) but pumpkin or even sweet potato will be just fine.

Enjoy!

Chop up your squash or pumpkin and throw into a baking tray, add olive oil and roast for about 25 minutes.

While the squash is roasting, fry a finely chopped white onion until translucent and then add the risotto rice and stir until the rice turns clear.

Add a glass of white wine and stir until the wine has evaporated and you can smell the delicious vapours. ummm

Start to slowly ladel in some hot vegetable stock and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid. Continue this process until the rice is cooked, making sure to stir constantly. The stirring massages the rice making sure it is creamy and fantastic.

Once the rice is ready, add a large hand-ful of baby spinach and stir until wilted, add the roasted squash, handful of parmesan, squirt of lemon and then crumble over some firm goat’s cheese (preferably with a rind) and serve!

Shopping List:

Risotto rice

Pumpkin/Squash

Goat’s cheese

spinach

onion

stock

lemon

parmesan

white wine

A British BBQ (Part I) Goat’s cheese couscous salad

So for the last week I have been living it up back home in London enjoying a beautiful British Summer.

Well, not really, the weather has been horrendous, but the day my family decided to have a barbecue in the garden, the Sun decided to poke his head out and stay shining on us for the whole day. This was a result, but with some of the foodie treats we put together I don’t think it would have mattered if it had showered on us all day.

Among the usual meaty goodness that appears at barbecues such as burgers and sausages, which I left to the men of the house to take care of, I put together a wonderful dish based on a Delia summer classic. The goat’s cheese couscous salad which is so easy to prepare and is so delicious and is always a crowd pleaser.

You first roast a red pepper, 2 courgettes, an aubergine, a quartered fennel bulb, cherry tomatoes,chopped garlic and torn basil leaves. Once these lot have roasted for about half an hour I let them sit in the lower part of the oven while I poured couscous into a glass bowl and covered for 5 minutes until cooked. Once the couscous is ready I forked it up until fluffy and added a slug of olive oil, salt and lemon juice. Most people call for the couscous to be cooked with stock but I think this is all it needs, the couscous acts as a fluffy pillow to absorb all the flavours to be added to it.

Place the roasted veggies on top of the couscous and then spoon over soft goat’s cheese, as much as pleases you, and then sprinkle over a handful of salad leaves. Then drizzle over a dressing made of olive oil, harissa paste, lime juice and a little water.

This dish not only tastes beautiful, with the creamy goats cheese and hot, tangy dressing but looks amazing when put in a glass bowl so you can see all the different layers.

Try it for your next summer feast, you will love it!

Shopping List:

1 red pepper

fennel bulb

2 courgettes

1 aubergine

cherry tomatoes

garlic

basil

couscous

salad leaves