Chestnut Lasagne with Chestnut Mushroom Ragù and Porcini Cream Sauce

Italian Woodland Layers

✨ Before We Begin…

Each element here is made with care — but none are difficult. The pasta is gentle and forgiving, the sauces can be made ahead, and the layering is open and relaxed. This is the kind of dish that rewards presence in the kitchen. If you’re craving a plated dish that nourishes on every level — this is the one.

What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?

• You’ll practise making simple handmade pasta, rolling it into sheets and cooking it with confidence.
• You’ll build a deeply flavourful ragù using fond, and make a silky, restaurant-style sauce with ease.
• Bringing the elements together in an open style, you’ll discover new ways to reimagine lasagne — and see how each component can stand alone in other dishes.

‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer

The Cook’s Mind

What This Recipe Helps You Practise

• Knife Skills: Precision dicing for the soffritto (onion, carrot, celery)
• Cooking Techniques: Deglazing, fond development, building a pan sauce, blending a sauce
• Flavour Layering: Using miso, lemon, tomato, mushrooms and cocoa for depth
• Plating: Open-style lasagne with a dressed green and oil drizzle finish
• Vegan Cookery: Protein from mushrooms and oat-based cream, without relying on tofu or pulses

Teaching Points

This dish carries more than a recipe — it’s a quiet workshop in your kitchen. Here you’ll find the techniques that bring chestnut pasta, ragù, and porcini sauce into focus. Dip into what helps, skim the rest, or download the full guide if you’d like a deeper read.

Fresh Chestnut Pasta Dough

• Roll to just thinner than a coin; too thin tears, too thick goes chewy.
• Feel is everything — soft, pliable dough that pulls clean from the bowl.
• Chestnut + 00 flour = tender but tricky — watch hydration carefully.
• Knead 6–8 minutes for elasticity, not chew.

Chestnut Mushroom Ragù

• Browning is the ‘meat’ of the dish — caramelise onion, garlic, mushrooms well.
• Deglaze with intention: wine, porcini liquor, or stock to reclaim flavour.
• Miso for umami, passata for sweetness — balance for a coating sauce, not soup.

Porcini Cream Sauce

• Soak porcini 10–15 minutes; strain liquor carefully to avoid grit.
• Blend to a silky, double-cream consistency — not gloopy.
• Consider two versions: spoonable thickness vs. loose arcs on the plate.

Extra Teaching Notes

• Handling broad pasta sheets: lift gently, never rinse, finish in sauce.
• Use semolina on trays, not boards; keep a bench scraper in rhythm.

Download the full Teaching Points guide (print-friendly PDF)

Make-Ahead

• Make the ragù, cream sauce, and pasta dough up to 2 days in advance.
• Greens can be blanched ahead and dressed before serving.

Freezer-Friendly

• The ragù and porcini cream sauce both freeze well.
• Fresh pasta can be frozen. Once rolled and shaped, arrange it on a tray in a single layer and freeze until solid. Then transfer the frozen pasta to a freezer bag or airtight container. There’s no need to defrost — cook directly from frozen in boiling water. If you’re freezing a ball of pasta dough instead, let it defrost slowly in the fridge, then allow it to come fully to room temperature and rest before rolling. If the dough feels stiff or has lost its elasticity, knead it briefly to restore suppleness.

Rescue Mission – What To Do When Things Go Wrong

• Too salty? Add more oatgurt or passata to dilute the balance.
• Porcini cream too thin? Simmer it down a little or blend in more oatgurt.
• Gritty mushrooms? See the note below for the no-grit prep method.

Key Substitutions

• 00 Flour: plain flour or a mix of plain and strong white flour.
• Chestnut flour: spelt or fine wholemeal flour, though flavour will change.
• Oatly Greek: other thick plain plant-based yoghurt or silken tofu.
• Verjus: a little lemon juice plus a splash of white wine.

Cooking Parlance

• Fond: the deep brown sticky stuff that builds under sautéed mushrooms — gold dust for flavour.
• Deglaze: lifting those sticky, tasty bits from the pan with liquid (wine or stock).

A Note on Origin

Lasagne, in its traditional baked form, is a beloved Italian classic. This open version reimagines the familiar — inviting us to rethink what lasagne can be, what it holds, and how it’s served. No layered weight here — just mushrooms, chestnuts, and a breath of smoke drifting through the final oil.

Ingredient Focus: Porcini Mushrooms

Dried porcini carry more intensity than any fresh variety — deep, mushroomy, almost meaty. They need careful prep to remove grit, but once clean, their broth is pure magic. A few grams go a long way in sauces, risottos, and creams.

✨ Forest memory — dried, steeped, and stirred into silk.

To Ingredient Focus: Porcini Mushrooms

My Favourite Way To Eat

With friends. Or I’d like to cook this for a table of people and then retire from the room with the quiet pleasure that comes from putting amazing food in front of people.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve with wilted kale or spring greens in verjus dressing with a few pine nut or seeds on top.
• Dressed with smoked oil and Malden salt.
• A crisp side salad would work brilliantly. Something bright and bitter to complement the indulgent richness.

Multi-Purpose Recipe

This recipe has more than one life…

The sauces and pasta are modular and can stand alone or be used elsewhere:

• Use the ragù to fill cannelloni, spoon over grilled sourdough, or tuck into a roasted squash.
• Layer it into a savoury tart, fold into puff pastry for hand pies, or serve as a base for a Sunday fridge-clear topped with roasted roots.
• The porcini cream loves soft polenta, charred cabbage, buttery mash, or a slab of toast on a quiet night in.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• The chestnut flour brings a genuine new dimension and flavour to pasta.
• Porcini, smoked oil, and chestnut ragù create a forest-floor richness without heaviness.
• It’s quietly indulgent — the kind of dish that feels like staying in with a candle lit.
• An open lasagne invites you to break the rules and make it your own.

Handpicked to Go With This One

A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.

• Blessed Vegan Garlic Bread – Cooking Hacks To Up Your Game
• Summer Mushroom Stroganoff with Oat Crème Fraîche, Lemon and Dill
• Ultimate Bolognese Sauce for Pasta
• Dark Chocolate Mousse With Forest Fruit Ripples

Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!

Got something spare — a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less❣️

Chestnut Lasagne with Chestnut Mushroom Ragù and Porcini Cream Sauce Recipe

Next Steps?

 You’ve got the full recipe — now take it further. Inside Black Labrador, you’ll find structured video courses and an ever-growing cookbook designed to help you cook with understanding, not guesswork. Learn, revisit, and deepen your skills at your own pace.