When Sammy overstays his welcome, turn to layers.

You already know part one of using up the salmon leftovers. Salmon dip. Part two was an unplanned but happy coincidence – a recipe from the dry pasta chapter.

Fantastic Fish Lasagne

A few people thought the idea of a fish lasagne seemed pretty strange, but I quite liked it and once I’d read the recipe, decided it was actually a very good idea. I love lasagne, I love a fish pie, I love to have a use for leftovers and avoid wastage and I love to be pleasantly surprised. Tick to all of the above. This was basically a Sammy fish pie lasagne that blew me away.

I started by making a milky broth – sweating finely chopped carrot, celery, fennel and onion then adding the prawn heads from some whole green prawns, a small bundle of herbs (bay leaves and parsley) wrapped in bacon and a dash of wine, simmering until the prawn heads turned pink, then adding two cups of milk and bringing to the boil. As soon as it reached boiling point, I took the milky broth off the heat, plucked out the prawn heads (& any stray whiskers!) and the herby bacon parcel and then used it to make a béchamel sauce with butter and flour. So in the end I had creamy white sauce with small chunks of vegies.

I spread half this mixture in the bottom of a baking dish, covered it with a sprinkling of chopped prawn bits and chopped pieces of cod, plus a good amount of leftover salmon, some halved cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley and grated parmesan. Then a layer of lasagne sheets, more fish, prawns, tomato and parsley another layer of lasagne sheets then the remaining béchamel sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Into the oven for 45 minutes, covered with foil for the first 30 and free to crisp up for the last 15, I have to admit I expected a small overflow disaster (my baking dish could really have been a little larger for this project!), but was surprised to find a perfectly contained and very creamy and colourful work of fishy art!




Served up with some rocket drizzled with balsamic glaze, I couldn’t fault this dish. Except for the fact that I had leftovers of the lasagne, on top of the already cumbersome leftovers from the Sammy luncheon on the weekend. Part three of the leftover challenge is fish cakes, which I’m planning to make tonight. Who knows, there could even be a part four…

Xx