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Poblano and mushroom lasagna features a sauce made with brown butter, poblano peppers and cornflour.

Poblano and mushroom lasagna features a sauce made with brown butter, poblano peppers and cornflour.

Lately I’ve been noticing that what I make for a meal is only partly about the food. It’s also about the type of experience I want to have or create. The week this lasagna came together, there were many quick meals made on the fly because everyone was so busy. I was working on a project away from home most days, and I can’t remember cooking a single hot meal the entire week. I knew I wanted to slow things down for the weekend and, most of all, to spend time with my family, so it didn’t take long for the Italian side of me to imagine a lazy Sunday with lasagna bubbling away in the oven.

As I started to think about the tomato sauce I would need to make, I noticed the poblanos, mushrooms and arugula in the fridge, and another idea started to form. Then I saw the jar of blue corn flour on the shelf, and remembered there was a half-bag of fire-roasted corn in the freezer. While I would love to take credit for coming up with this lasagna that is now a family favorite, I cannot take any of it. This dish is a result of the unique Southwest pantry of ingredients that has become an integral part of our home and continues to fill me with inspiration and gratitude.

There are many liberties you can take to make this your own. I used cremini mushrooms here because that’s what I had on hand, but you can choose any combination of your favorites. If you don’t have corn flour, you can easily make it by blending cornmeal into a fine powder in a very dry blender (note: this is not the same as cornstarch). I used arugula because I love the peppery bite it lends, but spinach or even kale would be beautiful choices. You could add shredded roasted chicken, browned beef or sausage in with the vegetable mixture if you wanted to include meat. And while I used dry, no-boil lasagna noodles, you could use cooked lasagna noodles, too.

When reading the recipe, you’ll notice that the first step for the poblano sauce is to make brown butter, also called beurre noisette. The step of browning the butter adds a far-reaching nuttiness and depth to the sauce that is kind of unbelievable given that it only takes a few extra minutes of cooking. Butter is made up of fat, water and protein, and after the butter melts, you’ll notice it begins bubbling. How long this takes depends entirely on how much water is in the butter, because before the protein solids can start to brown, most of the water needs to evaporate. Think of it in the same way as caramelizing onions: They cannot start turning brown until the water has had a chance to cook off. Because of this, I like to use a good-quality butter, which tends to have less water.

This lasagna holds up wonderfully overnight if you make it ahead of time (I made it the day before). My biggest recommendation would be to lean into the culinary concept and French phrase mise en place, which technically means “setting in place” but really means make your life a lot easier by gathering, organizing and preparing your ingredients before you start cooking.

Makes: 8-10 servings; total time: 2 hours

4 poblano peppers, fire roasted, peeled, seeded and diced

1 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound mushrooms (choose your favorites)

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 pound dry no-boil lasagna noodles

Preparation: Start by making the sauce. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. We are making brown butter here, so let the butter continue to cook until the solids visibly turn a deep golden, toasted-hazelnut shade of brown. Now add the diced poblano chiles and garlic, and cook for a minute or so before whisking in the corn flour. Whisk this together for another minute and add the milk, whisking often to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Bring this mixture to a simmer, and let cook for a few minutes more. Turn off heat and whisk in the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the sauce to a blender and carefully blend until it’s completely smooth. Reserve.

Now to make the filling: Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pan or pot over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and shallot, and cook for around 20 minutes, until the water has evaporated and they have caramelized. Add the rosemary, corn and arugula, and cook for another few minutes, until the arugula has completely melted into the rest of the vegetables. Reserve.

Now you are ready to build the lasagna! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss together both kinds of cheese in a bowl. Pour around a quarter of the sauce into the bottom of a 9-by-12-inch baking dish. Divide the lasagna noodles into three stacks. Layer one third of the lasagna noodles across the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle half of the vegetable mixture over the top with a light sprinkle of cheese. Add another layer of lasagna noodles, another quarter of sauce, then the remaining vegetable mixture and a light sprinkle of cheese. Top with the remaining noodles, the rest of the sauce and the rest of the cheese. Crack a bit of fresh black pepper and sea salt over the top and bake for 1 hour, or until the lasagna is bubbling and the cheese has turned a golden brown.

Marianne Sundquist is a chef and writer who in 2020 co-founded Stokli, an online general store. Find her on Instagram @chefmariannesundquist, and email her at marianne@stokli.com.

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Ditch the poblano peppers (YUK!) and use NM green chile.

Be kind and ditch the word YUK.

Sorry, those peppers are not NM peppers, buy NM!

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