Creamy Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna

This looks amazing [laughs], sorry.

[upbeat music]

Hi, I'm Christina Chaey from the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen.

Today, I'm gonna show you how to make

a creamy mushroom lasagna

with some Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup.

During the holidays,

I tend to have a lot of people over for dinner.

More and more,

I've noticed that a lot

of my friends have started eating vegetarian.

As a result,

I've started to play around a lot with

what I can make that feels large,

but easy to put together,

that I really don't have to fuss over,

once everyone's at the table.

And that's where the idea of lasagna came in.

The first thing that happens in any lasagna

is that you make white sauce which is known as bechamel.

You're babysitting flour and milk

on the stove for a long time,

so I'm not going to do that today,

because I am using Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup,

they're essentially built-in roux.

I'm just taking a couple of cans

and dumping them into a bowl.

And you'll notice it's super thick

and I'm just going to thin this out

with 1 1/2 cups of whole milk.

This is going to be the creamy sauce

between each layer of pasta.

The recipe calls for 15 noodles,

I'm going to drop in 17

because sometimes they have a tendency to break.

And then I'm also going to salt my pasta water.

One more toss.

The noodles are just gonna lay out right on top of these.

I just wanna coat them very lightly with oil,

I'm using olive oil.

It looks like my noodles might be almost there,

so I'm gonna drain these.

I'm gonna shake off the extra water,

and then I am going to use my tongs,

and then we'll come back to them

when we are ready to make the lasagna.

I am going to use a couple of different mushrooms.

These are just baby bella mushrooms,

and these are baby king oyster mushrooms

which I think makes them prince oysters.

Chanterelles, very special.

And finally we have maitake mushrooms,

and they just add another cool textural element.

I think I'm just gonna tear these into small pieces,

and you can just do that with your hands.

Maybe like a 1/2 inch thick slice.

These guys are in the bowl.

And then same thing with these in my bowl.

And then I'm also going to chop up one medium shallot.

So, I'm gonna use some rosemary, and sage,

as well as some thyme.

Okay, my skillet's nice and hot so I'm gonna add some butter

and a little bit of oil.

Mushrooms have all this water in them,

it's really important to cook them out.

And then I'm also gonna season these

with a little bit of salt and pepper.

The mushrooms are golden brown all over.

I'm gonna transfer these to a bowl

and the rest of my mushrooms,

and then I'm gonna go back and make my ricotta mixture.

This is full-fat ricotta,

very important to use full-fat

in order to make everything feel,

you know, just like luxurious.

I am also just going to add some salt and pepper.

Then I'm going to add some acid with some lemon,

all this zest is just gonna go straight

into my ricotta bowl.

And then I also need a tablespoon of juice,

and then I'm just gonna stir this together.

The last thing I wanna add to my ricotta mixture

is some chopped spinach.

I'm just folding the spinach into the ricotta.

My second batch of mushrooms are done.

I am going to add back the first batch,

then I'm gonna add the shallots that we chopped up before.

I am going to add my wine, now this is just a 1/3 of a cup.

My chopped herbs, the herbs smell amazing,

the rosemary, and the sage, and the thyme,

all just really hit you in the face.

Basically, this is the fun part,

this is the part where you just layer stuff

and cover it with sauce and cheese.

I'm gonna start off with a thin layer of

the Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup mixture,

four of my lasagna noodles,

and then I'm gonna add more sauce on top.

This time I'm gonna add a cup,

top that with half of my mushroom mixture.

I'm going to do the same thing with my ricotta mixture,

little small dollops on top of the mushrooms.

I'm not really too concerned about making sure

this part covers the entire pan.

And then on top of that I'm gonna add

a 1/4 cup of grated parm.

I'm gonna get this in the oven,

and we're gonna bake it at 375 for about 20 minutes.

My lasagna's been resting for a few minutes now.

It is cool enough to cut into.

All right, nice, beautiful.

It's pure umami.

You have that sort of super savory note

from the soup mixture,

and then you have the earthiness

from the fresh mushrooms that we added,

under this really beautiful crackly parm crust.

It's the kind of thing I could prep,

not worry about, and then serve,

and I know everyone would be really happy with it.