Mushroom Lasagna

Confession:  We ate this over a month ago, and I'm just barely getting to posting it.  The dish was delicious, don't get me wrong, but for awhile the camera battery was always dead every time I had a free moment (i.e. nap time) to sit down and blog.  Now the fates have aligned, the camera is charged, and the baby is napping and as a result, you get this delicious recipe.  Thanks Po and Ted for making this delicious dinner!

A few notes: We couldn't find the fresh exotic mushroom blend.  Po got a variety of dried mushrooms and fresh mushrooms and tweaked the recipe slightly.  I'm not really sure how she altered the recipe, but whatever she did was delicious.  What I'm posting below is the original recipe since I don't know the changes she made.  Also, she didn't use all of the baking liquid because she thought it looked like too much liquid.  After it baked, however, we all agreed the extra liquid would not have been too much and that we could have used all of it.

1 C boiling water
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 Tbsp butter
Olive oil
1 1/4 C shallots
8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
4 oz presliced exotic mushroom blend
salt and pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh Thyme
6 garlic cloves, minced, divided
1/2 C white wine
1/3 C neufchatel cream cheese
2 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped, divided
3 C milk, dividied
1/4 C flour
9 no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 C Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated

Combine the boiling water and dried porcini mushrooms.  Cover and let stand 30 minutes.  Drain mushrooms, reserving cooking liquid.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add shallots to pan; saute.  Add the fresh mushrooms, salt, and pepper.  Saute 6 minutes or until mushrooms are browned.  Add thyme and 3 garlic cloves.  Saute 1 minute.  Stir in wine.  Bring to a boil.  Cook until almost all the liquid evaporates.  Remove from heat.  Stir in cream cheese and 1 Tbsp chives.  Add porcini mushrooms.

Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil.  Saute 3 garlic cloves.  Add reserved porcini cooking liquid, 2 3/4 C milk, salt, and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Whisk together 1/4 C milk and flour.  Slowly add flour mixture to milk mixture.  Simmer  2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly with a whisk.

Spoon 1/2 C sauce into a sprayed 9x13 baking dish.  Top with 3 noodles.  Spread half of the mushroom mixture over noodles.  Repeat layers, ending with remaining sauce.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Top with remaining chives.

Recipe from Jan/Feb 2012 Cooking Light Magazine