Pesto Irish Basil Lasagna by

Ingredients:
* 12/15 fresh egg Lasagna sheet (the ones from the fridge)
* 200gg of Pecorino or Grana Padano, finely grated eventually plus ricotta for rich taste
* Your favourite steam unsalted vegetables, green beans, broccoli, asparagus, potatoes or mix of them
* 100g toasted pine nuts , for the topping
* Fresh basil leaves
PESTO ALLA GENOVESE
* 50g of toasted pine nuts
* 1 garlic clove, crushed
* 40g of Pecorino or Grana , finely grated
* 200g of leaves of fresh basil
* 150ml of olive oil
*
* salt
* pepper
BECHAMEL
* 150g of flour
* 150g of unsalted butter
* 2 litres of whole milk, warmed
* freshly grated nutmeg
* salt
* pepper
My Method :
1
Begin by making the pesto. Toast the pine nuts in a hot dry pan until lightly golden and shiny from the natural oils. This should take a few minutes - don't let them burn otherwise they'll taste bitter
2
Add the nuts along with the Pecorino Romano or Grana , garlic, basil, oil and blend to a rough paste with olive wood pestle and marble mortar. Taste and season with salt, pepper until you're happy with the flavour. Set aside *️⃣
3
Next, make the béchamel. Heat the flour for extra taste and then add the butter on the flour in a pan and stir to create a paste (this is called a roux). Cook out the roux for a minute or so to avoid a floury taste in your sauce have to be brown
4
Add the bay leaf if you like then slowly pour in the warm milk, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. The bechamel will start to thicken up after a few minutes. Taste and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper
5
Preheat an oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 whilst you assemble the lasagne
6
Choose an ovenproof ceramic dish which fits the lasagne sheets (or trim the sheets accordingly). Cover the base with pasta, followed by pesto, then bechamel (discarding the bay leaf in the sauce eventually ), repeating this pattern until everything is used up and there is a layer of bechamel on the top. Season each layer with a pinch of of pecorino, Parmesan or grana, toast pine nuts, steam green beens, fiordilatte mozzarella, someone like mash potatoes and ricotta of course freshly ground black pepper as you go
7
Once layered, sprinkle the top with finely grated Parmesan and some pine nuts. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes until golden on top, then serve
Talking about the pesto lasagna itself - it's pretty straightforward and simple. All you have to do is to combine pesto, béchamel sauce, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese someone like ricotta too, and you are done! You can use some extra green vegetables if you like more texture as steamed green beans in the video, mash potatoes, broccoli etc.Pesto can be either store bought or made at home. I always make my own pesto because it's tastier by miles. It's not even a discussion! If you doubt my words, just try to make a homemade pesto once and you will never look back. I promise you.
Remember, that there is no golden rule for how much basil, olive oil, Parmesan or how many pine nuts you have to use in the pesto recipe. It depends on your taste. Want more nutty flavor? Add more pine nuts. You like your pesto runny? Add more olive oil and so on.
An old woman from Liguria the land of the Pesto Basil taught me to never cook pesto, but to only gently warm it up, because if you cook pesto, you kill the basil and destroy the aroma. I make my lasagne following her teachings. I layer no boil, flat fresh lasagna sheets (they work great) with small chunks of precooked potatoes sometimes and chopped steam green beans roasted pine nuts , parmigiano and fiordilatte mozzarella with spoonful’s of béchamel sauce and pesto. I warm the lasagne for 20 or more minutes, then I broil the top for 3 or 4 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. Remember to resist at list 25 minutes before cut your portion and enjoy.
*️⃣ Technically the word “pesto” comes from the Italian ‘pestare’, to pound. Therefore, the purists would argue that this sauce should be called differently when made in a blender.
Aside from how it should be called, does the pesto made in a blender taste the same as the traditional one? Absolutely not. But it does get close, and it’s much better than any pesto that I could ever buy in a jar.
But before we start throwing basil leaves into the blender, it’s important to know that chopped basil is prone to oxidation - it turns dark and deteriorates in flavor when in contact with the oxygen in the air. Luckily oxidation can be countered by allowing the basil leaves to dry completely before blending them so that the oil can create a seal around the chopped leaves, keeping the oxygen away.
Basil also deteriorates and changes flavor when heated too much. To help counter this, the blender must be activated in pulses in order to limit the overall blending time and the corresponding friction produced by the blades. It also helps to chill the blender bowl and blade in the freezer before use.