Lasagna with Romanesco and Broccoli - Fractal Geometry in the Oven

The Romanesco cabbage, this small tender green marvel with spiral florets, slips here between the sheets of pastry with broccoli and fresh goat cheese. A vegetarian dish that stands up, soft and gratinated.

A vegetable that looks like a mathematical poem

Romanesco broccoli is one of those vegetables that make you stop in the middle of the kitchen. Its light green florets are arranged in perfect spirals, and each spiral is itself made of smaller spirals, to infinity - this is what is called a fractal structure. Mathematicians see in it the edible illustration of a recursive geometry; the cook, on the other hand, sees mainly a cousin of cauliflower, more elegant, softer on the palate, and which holds its shape well when cooked.

Romanesco, broccoli, and cauliflower all belong to the Brassicaceae family and are, botanically, variants of the same species (Brassica oleracea). That's why they go so well together in the same dish: they come, literally, from the same garden.

This lasagna takes advantage of this - two greens that answer each other, two textures that complement each other, a béchamel that holds them together.

The ingredients (for 4-6)

• 1 romanesco broccoli (about 600 g)
• 1 head of broccoli (about 400 g)
• 12 sheets of dry lasagna (or fresh as desired)
• 150 g of fresh goat cheese (fresh log or cheese type Petit Billy)
• 80 g of grated parmesan (or grana padano)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• Salt, pepper, grated nutmeg

For the béchamel

• 50 g of butter
• 50 g of flour
• 700 ml of milk
• Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Step-by-step

1. Cut the romanesco broccoli and broccoli into small florets. Cook them for 8 minutes in a large pot of boiling salted water - they should remain slightly firm. Drain and set aside.

2. In a pan, sauté the crushed garlic clove in olive oil, over low heat, for one minute. Add the cooked florets, salt, pepper, stir gently to flavor without breaking everything.

3. Prepare the béchamel: melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour all at once, stir with a whisk for 1 minute over low heat. Pour the milk little by little, without stopping to whisk, until the sauce thickens. Salt, pepper, grate a little nutmeg. Remove from heat.

4. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

5. In a gratin dish, assemble the lasagna:

• A thin layer of béchamel at the bottom
• Lasagna sheets
• Half of the vegetables
• Half of the crumbled fresh goat cheese by hand
• Béchamel
• Lasagna sheets
• Remaining vegetables and goat cheese
• Béchamel
• Lasagna sheets
• The rest of the béchamel well covering
• Grated parmesan on top

6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling on the edges. If it browns too quickly, cover with aluminum foil halfway through cooking.

7. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. It's the detail that makes the difference: the lasagna then holds its shape when cutting the portions, the béchamel settles, the flavors come together.

Around the dish

A simple green salad on the side - young shoots, a drizzle of olive oil, a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Nothing more. The dish is already generous.

For the wine, a round and soft white: a chignin from Savoie, a chardonnay from Mâconnais. Or to stay fresh, a sparkling water with a slice of lemon.

And for a flexitarian Sunday that doesn't want to moralize: this dish just proves that a well-treated vegetable is often better than three hastily prepared meats. Romanesco, as soft as cauliflower but a little more nutty on the palate, deserves its place at the center of the plate.