Main dish
Nigella's Mexican Lasagne recipe
Jump to recipeA hearty Mexican-inspired dish. The ingredients are layered between tortillas, lasagne-style, then the whole thing is sliced like a pizza.
- Prep30m
- Cook30m
- Total1h
Nigella’s Mexican Lasagne might sound like an odd recipe but it's basically beans, corn, cheese and tomato sauce sandwiched between tortillas and topped with more cheese. I marvel at its weight every time I lift it into the oven and rejoice when it comes out as it feeds eight and we're a household of two. Leftovers reheat brilliantly and it makes a fantastic packed lunch.
I don't have a 26cm round ovenproof dish so I cook the lasagne in a 26cm springform cake tin. Because of this I leave out the 400ml of water that goes into the sauce (I've included it in the ingredients in case your container isn't loose-bottomed). I wrap a layer of foil around the base of the tin and put it on a foil lined baking tray before it goes into the oven. The lasagne leaks a little every time but it really doesn't matter (well, it did when I made it the first time and it leaked all over my oven*).
The lasagne is a formidable main meal so I don't serve anything with it apart from guacamole, salsa and yoghurt.
* Oven liners are a great help.
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Recipe
Nigella's Mexican Lasagne
- Prep30m
- Cook30m
- Total1h
Serves: 8
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1 tbsp light olive oil or rapeseed oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped into small chunks
- 2 bird's-eye chilis, finely chopped (seeds included)
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes (or ½ tsp fine sea salt)
- 2 tbsp coriander stalks, chopped
- 2 tins chopped tomatoes (800g)
- 400ml water (swilled from the tomato cans, see intro)
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
Filling
- 2 tins black beans, drained and rinsed (roughly 480g when drained)
- 2 tins sweetcorn (roughly 450g total when drained)
- 250g Cheddar cheese, grated
- 1 pack tortillas (8 pieces, I use 50% wholemeal wraps)
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan) and put a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat.
- Sauce: Add 1 finely chopped onion to the saucepan and fry for a few minutes then add 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 chopped red pepper, 2 chopped bird's eye chillis and 1 teaspoon of sea salt flakes. Fry for around 15 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander stalks and give everything a good stir.
- Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes (800g) to the saucepan along with 1 tablespoon of ketchup and 400ml of water swilled out from the tomato tins (leave out the water if you're using a springform tin). Stir, then leave to simmer for around 10 minutes.
- Filling: Mix 2 tins of drained black beans (480g), 2 tins of sweetcorn (450g) and the majority of 250g of grated cheese in a large bowl, reserving some cheese to top the lasagne with later.
- Assemble: Spoon around a third of the sauce evenly into the bottom of a 26cm round ovenproof dish.
- Place 2 tortillas over the sauce so that they overlap like a Venn diagram.
- Add around a third of the bean mixture on top of the tortillas then add a quarter of the sauce and spread everything out evenly.
- Add another 2 tortillas, this time in the opposite direction to the previous 2 tortillas.
- Add another third of the beans and more sauce then add 2 more tortillas changing their orientation once more.
- Add all of the remaining beans to the last layer, most of the sauce (reserve a little for the top) and the final 2 tortillas.
- Tip the rest of the sauce onto the tortillas and top with the remaining grated cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until the cheese has browned. Remove from the oven and allow the lasagne to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.
The remaining coriander leaves can be used in homemade salsa or guacamole.
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