By Marike Gevers

Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook: 1h20 minutes | Serves: 8

Ingredients

  • 400g baby spinach leaves, rinsed
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 500g brown mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 70g tomato paste
  • 400g tinned chopped tomato
  • 1 cup tomato sauce
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • ½ tsp paprika
  • 250g lasagne sheets, or enough for 3 layers in a large casserole dish
  • 400g mozzarella cheese, grated
  • ¼ cup basil leaves, chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
In a large saucepan, steam the spinach until wilted. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the olive oil to the pan and sauté the mushrooms on a medium-high heat until brown and it release moisture. Add the salt, onions and garlic and sauté for another 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, tin of tomatoes and 1 cup of the tomato sauce. Add the sugar, thyme and paprika.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Cook the lasagne sheets in salted boiling water for 10 minutes or until firm to the bite. Drain the pasta and separate the sheets so that they don’t stick to each other.
In a large casserole dish (about 25x39cm) spread the remaining cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish. Place a layer of lasagne sheets over the tomato sauce. Sprinkle over 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese, 1/3 of the spinach, spread 1/3 of the mushroom-tomato mixture and add half of the basil. Repeat this step.
Place the final layer of lasagne over the sauce, sprinkle over the remaining spinach, spread the remaining mushroom-tomato mixture and sprinkle over the remaining cheese.
Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for another 25 minutes.