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Poultry

Lasagna with ground turkey, vegetables and anthotyro

Description Recipe

I've tried to make this Italian dish into a more healthy one using ground turkey, vegetables and anthotyro cheese which has non fat content.
About lasagna, I am quoting from Wikipedia, that although the dish is generally believed to have originated in Italy, the word “lasagna” is derived from the Greek word λάσανα (lasana) or λάσανον (lasanon) meaning “trivet or stand for a pot”, “chamber pot“. The Romans later borrowed the word as “lasanum”, in Latin, to mean cooking pot. The Italians then used the word to refer to the dish in which lasagna is made. It wasn’t long before the name of the food took on the name of the serving dish.

Another theory suggests that lasagna might have come from Greek λάγανον (laganon), a kind of flat sheet of pasta dough cut into stripes.

Yield: 8 servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
Ingredients
15
lasagna noodles, which do not required to be cooked
500
grams ground turkey
5
springs onion, finely chopped.
½
cup of various colours of bell pepper, green, yellow, red, chopped
½
cup of mushrooms, chopped
3
carrots, grated
½
cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped
1
eggplant, peeled and diced
1
large garlic clove, finely chopped
500
grams (1 can of whole tomatoes) blended
350
grams of anthotyro cheese
½
tsp garlic powder
½
tsp oregano
½
tsp dried basil
Salt
black pepper
½
cup of white dry wine
½
cup of olive oil
For the béchamel sauce
2
spoonfuls of olive oil (or butter or margarine)
2
spoonfuls of flour
0,5 litre milk (I used low fat milk)
2
eggs
A pinch of salt
1
pinch of nutmeg
a few spoonfuls of freshly grated halloumi cheese to sprinkle on top (optional)
a pinch of cinnamon to sprinkle on top (optional)
(See step by step instructions for the sauce here

In a skillet add the olive oil on the heat, (reserve 2 spoonfuls) and sauté the ground turkey. Add the onions, garlic and sauté for a few minutes, then add the grated carrots, mix and add the wine. (Before adding the wine you can sauté all the other vegetables as well but I sautéd them separately because my children don’t eat them) Mix until the alcohol evaporates and add the seasoning and herbs. Add the tomato and ½ cup of water and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat before the sauce thickens and mix in the parsley.

(As I have to do this separately, in a non stick frying pan I add 2 spoonfuls of oil and sauté the eggplant, then I add the mushrooms and bell peppers and sauté for another minute and remove from the heat).

In a baking tin, ladle one third of sauce and spread along the bottom of the tin. The reason I wanted the sauce not to thicken is that the noodles may cook in the juices. Apply a layer noodles, and spread another ⅓ of the sauce (here I added the eggplant, mushrooms and pepper on one side of the tin. Crumble the anthotyro and add half of it on top of the ground meat. Apply the second layer of lasagna. Ladle in remaining sauce as well as remaining vegetables and anthotyro. Finally add the third layer of lasagna. (If you would like to see how anthotyro is formed you may read my post when I made Halloumi).

Finally, I made half the quantity of my béchamel sauce, and when it set I added more milk to make it thinner as I didn’t want a thick layer of cream on top.

Finally I grated some halloumi on top and sprinkled a dash of cinnamon on top.

Bake at 180° C until it is golden brown on top, in my oven I baked it for 1 hour. Allow to cool before serving.