This chicken pesto lasagna is a new way to enjoy your favourite pasta dish. The combination of flavours in this recipe is unexpectedly divine and I you should try it at home.
In a deep frying pan, heat the olive oil. Cook the ground chicken in the oil, and separate any big clumps of meat with your wooden spoon. The goal is evenly-sized crumbles of chicken. Add the sliced mushrooms when the chicken has been in the pan for about 5 minutes or so. Continue to fry the meat and mushrooms until they are thoroughly cooked.
Deglaze the frying pan with the red wine.
Add the pasta sauce with veggies (if using), the commercial tomato sauce, and the canned tomatoes. Stir well.
Add the herbs and garlic. Stir well
Allow simmering over low heat, uncovered, for 2 hours.
While the sauce is simmering, prepare the cheese filling. Start by spooning the ricotta cheese into a mixing bowl.
Add the pesto sauce, and mix well.
Stir in the cubes of Havarti. Set aside.
When the sauce has reduced (after about 2 hours), taste and correct the seasoning if necessary.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Start lasagna construction by ladling some sauce into the bottom of a large rectangular Pyrex baking dish. Then, spread it evenly over the bottom of the baking dish, so your noodles don’t stick to the pan.
Add a layer of the uncooked “oven-ready” lasagna noodles.
Add a layer of sauce.
Add a layer of noodles.
Dollop the ricotta cheese-pesto mixture over the noodles so that it is more or less evenly distributed across the noodle surface
Add a layer of noodles.
Add a layer of sauce.
Add a layer of noodles.
Add a thick layer of sauce.
Sprinkle on the grated Mozza and parmesan.
Cover the dish with tinfoil.
Bake the pesto lasagna at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes, remove the tinfoil and bake another ten minutes (this browns the cheese on top).
Remove the cooked lasagna from oven and allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before you slice into it.