Tuna, Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Lasagne; A thing of beauty

We turned the boiler / furnace (my explanation of the difference between boiler and furnace is here) at the end of April.

It had been nice, the forecast was good and it was the END of April.

We were too early.

Since then we’ve had a warm, sunny day followed by 2 cold, rainy days followed 2 sunny days followed by 4 cloudy, cold days, and so on.

Thinking it couldn’t go on forever, we decided to tough it out – using the wood stove when it got too cold in the house.

Too cold being 15C (60F) – in the house, not outside.

We’ve been burning a lot of wood.

On the nice days mon mari cooks on the barbecue.

On the cold days I cook anything that involves turning the oven on.

Tuna, Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Lasagne

Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 10oz (300gr) tuna, drained, net weight
• 3oz (90gr) chevre, goat cheese (the creamy kind in the little square carton, in Europe it’s Chevraux, in the U.S. Chavrie)
• 5oz (150gr) Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup (2oz, 60gr) milk
• 4 green garlic, thinly sliced, including green tops
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3oz (90gr) aged goat cheese, sliced
• 1/3 cup Greek olives, pitted and chopped, about 15 olives
• 5oz (150gr), pimiento or roasted red pepper, drained and sliced, net weight
• 2 cups (16oz, 480ml) tomato sauce
• 10 no-cook lasagne noodles
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese I used Gruyère

Instructions:

Sauté green garlic in oil until tender

Add yogurt, milk and soft goat cheese, stirring until melted.

Stir in tuna, breaking it up.

To assemble:

In a 10″ (25cm) square baking dish, or so… make the following layers

1/3 tomato sauce

2 – 3 noodles breaking to fit as needed

1/2 tuna, goat cheese sauce

2 – 3 noodles

1/3 tomato sauce

all of the pimiento

all of the sliced, aged goat cheese

all of the olives

2 – 3 noodles

1/2 tuna, goat cheese sauce

2 – 3 noodles

1/3 tomato sauce

all of the shredded cheese

Cover and bake 400F (200C) for 25 minutes.

Uncover and bake 5 minutes longer to brown cheese.

Remove and let rest for 5 minutes.

Cut into squares (or oblongs) and serve.

So, I made the lasagne on Sunday – a very cold, rainy day.

On Saturday, a sunny, warm day, I took photos of this tree. I’m told it’s an acacia.

We have several of them and they’re very common in this area.

In the spring, just as they are leafing out, they are covered with white flowers. It’s hard to tell on the first photo – but there are more pale yellow flowers than leave,

The scent is absolutely incredible. I’ve decided they have the best scent of any flower in the world.

They perfume the entire front garden.

There are so many flowers the branches are bent low – all the better to walk by and sniff.

Today, of course, the wind came up and the ground is covered in fragrant, cream-colored flowers.

And, just so you know, I hoed my vegetable garden….. Wearing my winter jacket.