Caramelized Onion Lasagna

As we were searching for recipes for this week's challenge, I told Talea I wanted something Difficult. Something Time Consuming. Something Intricate. Well, she came back after we searched through oodles of pages with this recipe. Caramelized Onion Lasagna. I haven't made lasagna in eons, and it was always the standard fake-ricotta red sauce type. I ate a bite of a white lasagna once and thought it was amazing, but knowing that the white sauce was all milk and cheese, I avoided. This recipe is an amazing blending of spinach, basil, chevre (goat cheese), and caramelized onions. I didn't look at the instructions, I only looked at the ingredients. I figured it would be the typical layer-veggies type of recipe. Boy, was I wrong.

First of all, the estimated time-to-oven on this recipe was about an hour. It took me two. I used three of the burners on my oven simultaneously. I got the noodles boiling (working with half a package of noodles or less, 8 noodles) and then started on the spinach and "cheese" filling. I obviously had to make a number of adjustments to the recipe to avoid cow, but I managed, and I must say, I managed successfully. While the water came to a boil, I began chopping onions. Thinly. I knew this was going to be painful for my eyes, until I noted at the bottom of the recipe the helpful tips. For once, they were. I lighted a candle and had no problems with my eyes the entire time I chopped three onions and started sauteeing them.

Then I began the process of cleaning four cups worth of spinach. I have bought the "already washed" kind of before and was not really satisfied, so this time I cleaned a dirty bunch by hand and then whirled them in my salad spinner. I went and denuded my basil plant (it is SO handy having my own basil plant) and added it to the spinach. Then I mashed together tofu and nutritional yeast and whirred it and the greens together in my handy dandy hand food processor. The result? A substance rather like thickened pesto with a spinach flavor. It tasted amazing. By this time, the onions were caramelized and I added in the cooking wine, which promptly turned them purple, and then cooked the liquid out. The purple amused me a GREAT deal. In another pan, I began the white sauce, which starts out like any gravy, easily substituted with soy milk, added chevre instead of gorgonzola, and turned its burner off. The fixings were ready.

I have a perfect little pan just the right size for this recipe when using a reduced amount of noodles. I layered and slathered as directed, and ended up with an irresistible array of colors, nearly complementary too!

I had put in 4 oz of chevre instead of 2, and I wish I hadn't, but I added some extra salt to counteract the sweetness.

A sprinkling of walnuts across the top and it was ready for the oven!

Half an hour later, a delectable lasagna sprang from the oven and into my mouth. Delicious. The flavors are so weird, and yet work together so well. It would probably be amazing with real ricotta and gorgonzola. Mine was amazing too. I might have to try it again with portobello mushrooms in half for Matt. I can't stand mushrooms. But I imagine the flavor would go well with the others.