Pasticho (Venezuelan Lasagna)

I had a lunch meetup with a friend today and put together this Pasticho. It turned out really good so I thought others might like the recipe. The first time I made this, I used Ori Harington’s recipe. Unfortunately her website is offline so I can’t link to it, but if you follow @theveganduchess on Instagram, she has a post that gives some of a walkthrough. I also tend to “season from the heart” and do a lot of eyeballing and tasting so some of my ingredients aren’t going to be exact. I’ll include specific products I used, and you can always swap them out for whatever you prefer. It’s a very adaptable recipe

“Meat” & Sauce
Diced Onion – however much you want
1 package Beyond Beef (I had the block on hand, crumbles should work as well)
1 package Abbot Plant Based Italian Sausage
Seasonings: Garlic powder, Onion Powder, salt, pepper, Rosemary, Smoked Paprika
1 jar Marinara Sauce (I used Newman’s Own with no added sugar)
optional Vegetable Broth or water if using no boil noodles, Wright’s Liquid Smoke, Red wine/Red cooking wine to deglaze pan

Heat oil in saucepan. Once hot, sauté onions until soft and translucent. Add Beyond Beef or alternative to pan, breaking into pieces. Cook until browned, season lightly with garlic, salt and onion powder. Add additional oil if needed and the Abbot Italian sausage or alternative to pan, breaking into pieces apart and mix in with the Beyond Beef. Add additional seasonings to taste, including smoked paprika. The Abbot sausage comes pre-seasoned, so I waited until I tasted the mix to see what I felt it needed.

Once meat is cooked, use a splash of red wine to deglaze pan (optional). Add one jar of sauce to mixture, add additional seasonings to taste and a dash of Liquid Smoke if using. If you are using no boil noodles, you may want to add additional liquid, either water of vegetable stock/broth to the meat mixture to help cook the noodles. I added half a cup of vegetable broth to my sauce jar, sloshed it around and added that.

Simmer on low heat, while you make your Béchamel. Stir occasionally.

Béchamel
2 cups plant based milk, warmed (I used Oatly oat milk)
Nutritional Yeast
Butter (roughly 1-2tbsp…ish)
Flour (1 tbsp…ish)
Optional – Plant based heavy whipping cream (I used Country Crock)
Salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste

1 block of Miyoko Mozzarella, 1 block of Treeline mozzarella or your preferred equivalent.

In a saucepan, melt your butter. Add in flour a little at a time and combine until you have a paste. Add one cup of your warmed plant milk and whisk to break up any clumps of flour and butter. Once combined, add remaining milk, turn heat to medium and continue to stir until mixture begins to thicken. You can add plant based whipping cream a splash at a time if you find your sauce needs a bit more volume but this is an optional step. Add in your nutritional yeast and seasonings to taste.

Once done, layer the bottom of your baking dish with some of the meat sauce mixture, layer noodles on top followed by meat sauce, Béchamel, mozzarella, noodles for as many layers as you’d like. Mine ended up being 4 layers. When you get to your top layer, add meat sauce and Béchamel, cover with foil and bake for 45-60 minutes at 400 if using no boil noodles. Your baking time is going to need to be adjusted based on your oven and if your noodles are no-boil or boiled. Once your lasagna is cooked through, remove foil, add shredded mozzarella to top and bake or broil for an additional 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

Once I had mine layered up and before I put it in the oven, I added just a little splash of vegetable broth around the sides. Again, this is optional, and mainly if you’re using no-boil noodles and think there might not be enough liquid for the pasta to expand.