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lasagne al pesto con gamberi

pesto and prawn lasagne

This definitely qualifies as one of our ‘pragmatic pasta’ recipes - dishes that you can put together using mainly shop-bought or prepared main ingredients. Here I’ve used store-prepared fresh lasagne sheets, from Sainsburys. Yes, making your own bechamel sauce will taste better but there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a pre-prepared sauce a supporting role in this recipe. I was short on time and I wanted to prove that’s it’s perfectly possible to combine pre-prepared ingredients with homemade and still get a fantastic result. I’m not ashamed of the corners I’ve cut here, and in fact I’d be happy to serve this dish to anyone.


Of course, choose your pre-prepared sauce carefully, I prefer the more expensive ones as they generally tend to taste of something. An alternative to the varieties you can find in a jar are the supermarkets' own or independent brand  'four cheese' chilled cabinet sauces, which again deliver a little more flavour than the bargain-basement jar lasagne sauces.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)

  • make Pesto Genovese

  • prepare the other ingredients

  • grease the oven dish

  • begin adding layers

  • complete with no-pesto layer

  • bake

pesto and prawn lasagne

INGREDIENTS

FOR FOUR PEOPLE

  • approx 500ml (17 fl oz) bechamel sauce

  • 500g  (18 oz) frozen prawns 

  • 3 mozzarella balls

  • black olives

  • parmesan /pecorino


PESTO

  • approx 60g (2 oz) of a 50:50 mix of pecorino & parmesan

  • 100g (3.5 oz)  fresh basil leaves

  • 120ml (4 fl oz) olive oil (50:50 mix EVO and Olive Oil)

  • 1 large clove garlic

  • 50g (1.8 oz) pinoli

  • black pepper


PASTA

500g (18 oz)  fresh lasagne sheets

(mine were from Sainsbury's)

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METHOD

Make pesto Genovese following this recipe. Prepare the lasagne following the packet instructions (normally this involves some kind of pre-soaking or boiling). Super important to remember with this dish - always make sure the pesto is in contact with the bechamel, otherwise it may turn black in the heat of the oven.


At the bottom of your lasagne oven dish, start with a layer of bechamel, dotted with a couple of small blobs of pesto. Then add the first layer of lasagne sheets - you may have to trim them to size to fit your dish. Try not to overlap pasta sheets on the same layer; just butt them up edge to edge, and alternate the angle of the sheets by 90 degrees on each layer.

For the next layer, add bechamel, pesto, a sprinkle of prawns, and a few lumps of torn mozzarella. Keep building up the layers like that until you fill thewhole dish, and remember to squeeze everything flat after addding each new layer. Do this by placing both hands on the new layer and press down gently. When you get to the top layer, just top it with bechamel, mozzarella, grated pecorinio, parmesan, cayenne pepper and an oilve or two. No pesto because it will burn! Bake following the packet instructions and then allow to rest at least 10 mins before serving.

NUTRITION per serving

  • KCAL: we're working on it!

  • Fat (g): TBC

  • Sat Fat (g): TBC

  • Carb (g): TBC

  • Sug (g): TBC

  • Fibre(g): TBC

  • Prot (g): TBC

  • Salt (g): TBC

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