Nduja Asparagus Lasagne

Sometimes I have the best ideas in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.

This is one of them.

A good amount of white asparagus was sitting in the veggie drawer of my fridge. And I still have a roll of pasta dough.  What is the best method to bring them together? A lasagne!

But you need a tasty Bechamel sauce, when you don't have cream at home. Cheese was not a problem. But only white sauce, cheese and asparagus - that sounded boring. We have a holiday today and all shops are closed. I had to come up with an idea.  In the middle of the night it hit me. In my freezer is a small piece of Nduja. Spicy and creamy sausage paste from Calabria. 

I peeled the white asparagus and put the offcuts and peel in a pot with salt, sugar and butter and cooked them for 25 min. I fished out the solid stuff and let the broth cool down. That was part of the sauce for later.

Recipe:

500 g white asparagus,  35 g Nduja , 25 g butter, 25 g flour

200 ml milk, 600 ml asparagus stock, nutmeg, salt, pepper, Herbes de Provence

30 g hard Cheese,  3 slices strong mountain cheese 

In a pot melt the butter and add flour, cook it into a paste. Just add 50 ml milk to loosen the paste and then 50 ml more and then the rest. That way you prevent lumps. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Add chopped or ripped apart Nduja and let it melt. Season with nutmeg, pepper, salt and herbes. Add grated cheese to melt in the sauce too.

Cut up the pasta into the right size for the pan. Put some sauce on the bottom and put the first pasta sheet in. A few stalks of asparagus and some sauce. Repeat until you reach the top. Final sheet of pasta, some slices of mountain cheese, a bit more sauce on top

Bake at 170 C fan for 30 min. Let it cool down about 10 min, then serve