Zucchini-Käse-Lasagne (zucchini and cheese lasagne)
A low-carb lasagne where thin zucchini slices stand in for pasta sheets, layered with a cheese béchamel between them. Salting the zucchini slices and pressing out their water before layering is the single most important step, since raw zucchini holds enough liquid to turn the whole dish watery without it.
Prep30 min
Cook45 min
Rest20 min
Oven190°C
Servings4
Christoph's zucchini lasagne, the zucchini salted and pressed to remove water before layering, which is what keeps the finished dish from turning watery.
Ingredients
Written for a 26 × 20 cm dish
Units
Temperature
Servings
Zucchini sheets
- 900 g zucchini, sliced lengthwise, 4 mm thick rounded
- 10 g fine salt, for salting the zucchini rounded
Cheese béchamel
- 60 g butter rounded
- 60 g flour rounded
- 700 ml milk rounded
- 150 g grated hard cheese rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly grated nutmeg rounded
To assemble
- 80 g grated hard cheese, for the top rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Toss the zucchini slices with the salt and leave in a colander for 20 minutes. Press each slice firmly between layers of kitchen paper to remove as much water as possible.
- For the béchamel, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook 1 minute, stirring. Gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring, until thickened. Stir in the 150 g cheese until melted. Season with salt and nutmeg.
- Heat the oven to 190°C. Spread a thin layer of béchamel in the base of a baking dish. Layer zucchini slices over it, slightly overlapping, then more béchamel. Repeat the layers, finishing with a generous layer of béchamel and the remaining cheese on top.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until deeply golden and bubbling. Rest 10 minutes before slicing; this dish is wetter than a pasta lasagne and needs the rest to hold together.
Notes
- Salt and press the zucchini before layering, without exception. Raw zucchini holds a surprising amount of water; skip this step and the lasagne turns watery no matter how well everything else is done.
- A thicker béchamel than usual helps here, since it has to bind a wetter vegetable than pasta; do not thin it down if it looks a little thick before assembling.
- Let the dish rest longer than a pasta lasagne would need. Zucchini releases residual moisture even after salting, and the rest lets it settle into a sliceable structure.
- It keeps for 3 days in the fridge, though the texture softens further on reheating, more so than a pasta-based lasagne.
Ingredient substitutions
- Zucchini can be a mix of zucchini and thinly sliced aubergine, salted and pressed the same way.
- Grated hard cheese can be any good melting cheese; a mix of two gives more depth.
- A layer of wilted, squeezed-dry spinach between the zucchini layers is a good, optional addition.
From Christoph Mayer