This recipe is Ralph’s sea treasure version to our Meaty Cheesy Lasagna. He made the lasagna noodles and fresh ricotta from scratch, but to save time you can replace both with store-bought alternatives.

Ralph likes to use fresh tomatoes for added moisture, even though in winter they don’t have much flavour. He also prefers ricotta to mozzarella for consistency.

What I love about this meal is that most of the ingredients came from our local farmer’s market, with only a few things purchased at a grocery store. From farm to table. Doesn’t get much better than that.

As this was made with fresh lasagna noodles, we could devour it with just a fork.

Makes 6-8 servings.

🍷 Wine pairing: Pinot noir. We paired this with The Ned Pinot Noir 2020 (New Zealand).

Ingredients for homemade fresh lasagna noodles:

• 1 cup semolina flour
• 2 large organic eggs
• Pinch of salt

Ingredients for homemade fresh ricotta:

• 8 cups bio milk (we buy ours direct from a local farm)
• 375ml heavy cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about two lemons)

Ingredients for seafood lasagna:

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 leek
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ tsp black pepper
• Rind from one organic lemon (very important that it’s organic when using the rind). Juice from lemon will be squeezed into lasagna during assembly.
• 1 roasted red pepper, chopped (see roasting instructions here)
• 5 pickled mild/medium pickled pepperoni peppers, chopped (use more if you like the heat)
• 1 small bunch of dill, chopped
• 3 large scallops, chopped
• 2-3 peeled and deveined shrimps, chopped
• 250g salmon, skin removed and coarsely chopped
• 150g firm white fish (we used red snapper, but can also use sea bass or tilapia), chopped
• Pinch of salt
• 650g small tomatoes (about 9), chopped
• 1 medium-large zucchini sliced into thin rounds
• 2 cups/ 600g fresh or store-bought ricotta
• Fresh or dried lasagna noodles QB
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese QB
• Olive oil QB

Instructions for fresh lasagna noodles:

1. Combine all ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl, knead, and form dough into a ball. It shouldn’t be sticky but also not crumbly. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 5 pieces. Flatten a piece with your palm and feed into your pasta machine, starting with 1 (widest setting). Feed through, fold in half and feed through again. Then increase the crank setting incrementally and repeat until you reach number 6. Sprinkle a bit of flour if you find your dough is sticking.
3. Let sheets of pasta rest on a kitchen towel.

Instructions for fresh ricotta:

1. We’ve been using this recipe for fresh ricotta from Martha Stewart for years. The only adaption we suggest is to use 1/3 cup lemon juice instead of ¼ cup, but you can always start with less and add more juice if cheese is not curdling).

Instructions for seafood lasagna:

1. Melt butter in large pan (medium-low heat). Add leek and sauté for a few minutes, then add garlic and saute until soft but not browned. Off heat and add lemon rind, black pepper, red pepper, and pepperoni peppers and mix well.
2. Combine dill, seafood, and salt in a bowl.
3. Assemble lasagna into 3 layers in this order: tomatoes, lasagna noodles, leek mixture, zucchini, ricotta, seafood, and splash of squeezed lemon juice.
4. Finish with Parmesan and drizzle with olive oil.
5. Bake at 180°C with circulating air for 1 ½ hours.

Tips:

• If making fresh ricotta, don’t toss the whey! We feed our dog Mogly whey and use it in the garden. Here are 10 ways to use whey.
• We also feed Mogly salmon skin, as it’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids. But it’s important to thoroughly bake it – don’t serve it to your pooch raw.
• If you made fresh lasagna noodles and didn’t use all the sheets, run it through a pasta cutter to make fettuccine noodles.
• Leftovers freeze well.