Alternative Fillings For Mexican Lasagne

Our answer

Nigella's Mexican Lasagne (from KITCHEN) has a Southwestern-inspired filling of black beans and salty cheese, a spicy tomato sauce and uses soft tortillas in place of pasta. It is easy to make for a larger group of guests. The filling should not be too liquid as this could make the tortillas become too soft and collapse.

We would suggest roasted red peppers as a possible alternative filling. Nigella's recipe for Peppers With Feta And Almonds gives instructions for roasting the peppers and you can dice the skinned and roasted peppers, then mix them with the beans and goat's cheese from the lasagne recipe. Roasted butternut squash could also be a suitable filling and we suggest following Nigella's instructions for roasting cubes of squash in her recipe for Butternut Squash With Pecans And Blue Cheese. Use 500g of the roasted squash and mix this with the black beans and cheese. Any leftover squash will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Another possible alternative is to use the pumpkin filling from Nigella's Pumpkin And Goat's Cheese Lasagne. We estimate that you would only need to make half of the amount listed in the recipe for the Mexican Lasagne and make sure that you cook the pumpkin mixture until as much liquid as possible has evaporated, so that it is not too wet. For this option you would not need to add the beans but let the pumpkin cool before mixing in the goat's cheese, or sprinkle the cheese on top of each layer of pumpkin when assembling the lasagne.