Mushroom and Truffle Lasagne with Tuscan Sausage

Hello my loyal bloggers! Today is my 19^th birthday and I was fortunate to be graced by a beautifully sunny winter’s day that inspired me to go buy fresh groceries and hit the kitchen straight away. In fact, even before I opened my eyes and saw the sun I was dreaming about what I was going to make today.

Being my birthday, I wanted to make something special, something exquisite and unique that I would not eat everyday. Lucky enough I just got back from a remarkably eye-opening and experience nurturing trip to Italy and Greece that had my taste buds tingling at all hours of the day. If I had to recommend a ‘gourmet traveller’ list of things-to-do I would highly advise going to the Florence markets. The food market is so amazing with artisan produce mostly from the green hills of Tuscany. This is where my beautiful father used his negotiation skills to purchase an array of truffle products that had me innovating recipes in my head of what I could possibly cook.

 

Anyway, I thought what better occasion than my birthday to use my truffle products for the first time. This mushroom lasagne is amazing! It is not overly rich, and the combination of mushroom, truffle and the Tuscan sausage is, well it is ‘WOW!’ Seriously, if you have a special occasion coming up I can think of no better meal than this.

The mushroom layer mixture:

3 tablespoons truffle oil

60 grams butter

1 large leek, cleaned and sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

5 large portabello mushrooms

10 button mushrooms

1 package of dried porcini muchsrooms

3 Tuscan sausages, with the sausage meat taken out of the casing

1 glass of white wine

500ml of mushroom stock, boiling hot

freshly cracked black pepper, salt and oregano

250 grams mozzarella, grated

The Béchamel:

60 grams butter

4 tablespoons flour

500ml milk

75 grams grated mozzarella

50 grams grated parmesan

1 teaspoon of crema tartufata (I purchased this from the Florence markets but I believe the equivalent would be a truffle paste or cream of truffles).

nutmeg, white pepper

1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets

In a measuring jug rehydrate the dried mushrooms in the mushroom stock. In a large saucepan (I use a shallow cast iron pan) heat the truffle oil and butter. Add the leek and sauté for 3-5 minutes until tender. In the meantime, slice the portabello mushrooms lengthways at a thickness of half a centimetre and slice he button mushrooms thickly. Add the garlic to the leeks and sauté for 1 minute before adding the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms for 5 minutes and then add the sausage meat and sauté for a further 5 minutes. Add the white wine and reduce for a couple of minutes. Then add the mushroom stock and rehydrated mushrooms. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, make the béchamel. In a small saucepan melt the butter and add the flour. Fry off the flour for a couple of minutes and gradually add the flour, whisking constantly. Whisk continuously until it thickens. Add the nutmeg, white pepper and cheeses and continue to whisk until thick and smooth. Whisk through the crema tartufata and take off the heat.

In a rectangular backing dish, ladle a couple of spoonfuls of the juice from the mushroom mixture on the bottom of the dish. Lay down a layer of lasagne sheets and top with a third of the mushroom mixture. Sprinkle over a third of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat another two times. Lay the final layer of lasagne sheets on top of the third layer of mushroom mixture and spread the béchamel over the sheets. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 50 minutes or until nicely golden on top.