Tomato and Mushroom Pasta Bake with Creamy Vegan Béchamel Sauce
400g spiral pasta, cooked (lasagna sheets are fine too)
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 lb fresh or canned tomatoes (about 2 cans, I like half fresh half canned), chopped
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, chopped
3-4 Tablespoons vegan margarine
3 garlic cloves
2 slices of bread
4 cups Béchamel Sauce (see recipe at http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=21198.0)
1. Boil pasta and make the béchamel sauce (recipe below).
2. Preheat the oven to 400F and place your bread slices in there. Bake them while you're cooking everything else, until they are toasted through.
3. Saute onion in olive oil, add tomatoes and cook for 6-8 min, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. Melt margarine in a pan and add mushrooms. Cook until the juices have been released. Add garlic (and a little lemon juice if desired), season, and cook until most of the juices have evaporated.
5. When bread is done, remove from the oven and out in a food processor or finely chop to make breadcrumbs.
6. To assemble, start with a little béchamel sauce, then a layer of pasta. Layer on half of the tomato mixture, and another thin layer of béchamel. Add another layer of pasta, then half of the mushroom mixture, and béchamel. Repeat with the rest of the tomato and mushroom mixtures. Finish with a layer of pasta and béchamel.
7. Add about 2 Tablespoon of olive oil to the breadcrumbs and mix with your hands so it's nicely coated. Sprinkle on top. Bake for 20 minutes and serve.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was good! I gave it three stars but I'm sure I will change that. It seems like a recipe that will get better the more I try it. But I did really like it the first time ;)b
This was really good. I added Daiya cheddar cheese to the sauce. I also used italian style diced tomatoes and italian style bread crumbs. I do think that it needed a little bit of salt though. Maybe next time I will add some braggs to make it more salty.
So good!!! I cheated and used panko bread crumbs instead of toasting the bread. I used shitake, king oyster, and buttom mushrooms. Loved it!
This was a great hit with the omni fam, I liked it a lot too. The sauce was great. Good stuff LV!
Very good stuff. I ended up adding some squash to it after I had some the way this recipe calls for, and both ways are excellent, though I do prefer the version with squash (just some acorn squash I had that I had made a while back - baked with a little butter and sugar). I don't really know why, but it goes great with this, in my opinion.