Swiss Chard Lasagna with Ricotta and Mushrooms

This was an excellent meal. I found this in Bon Appétit, January. We have enough left over so that we can go see the King’s Speech after we take Max for his annual checkup. I did not exactly follow the directions. If you want to see their directions, go on line.
Béchamel Sauce
Ingredients:
2 ½ C whole milk
1 bay leaf
6 T unsalted butter
¼ C all purpose flour
½ t coarse kosher salt
½ t ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
Instructions:
1. Bring mill and bay leaf to a boil. Actually I put the milk and bay leaf in a 4 C measuring cup and microwaved it on high for 5 ½ minutes.
2. In a pan I melted the butter and added the flour. I cooked for 2 minutes to make surd the flour taste was gone.
3. Gradually I added the milk and cooked until the sauce was thick. I did it slow and it took about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and keep warm.
Swiss chard and Mushroom layers
Ingredients:
1 # Swiss chard, center rib removed and chopped. (Recipe does not use the ribs. They are my favorite part. I use the red and green chard. ) Chop the leaves very fine also.
4 T EVOO divided
1 1/3 C chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided
¼ t dried crushed red pepper
Kosher salt
1 # cremini mushrooms, sliced
¼ t ground nutmeg
Directions:
1. I truly depart from the directions in the magazine. First I always use red stemmed chard. I love the taste of the red stems. (I see no reason to blanch the chard, chop and squeeze out the water.) Rinse and drain and then chop really fine. I pulled out the stems and chopped fine. Then I acted like a chef at Beni Hanna and chopped the leaves very fine.
2. Heat 2 T of EVOO in a large wok. Add the stems and the onion, red pepper and garlic. Cook while you are chopping the leaves. Add the leaves. Mix in the salt and pepper and keep on low until the moisture evaporates.
3. Heat another skillet on medium and add the remaining 2 T EVOO
4. Add the mushrooms and the remaining garlic. Sauté until mushrooms are brown and tender. Mix in nutmeg, salt and pepper
Lasagna Composition
Ingredients:
9 7x3 lasagna noodles (I used precooked)
EVOO
1 15 oz. container whole-milk ricotta cheese
6 oz. Italian Fontina cheese, coarsely grated, divided
8 T finely grated Parmesan cheese divided
Directions:
1. I did not have to cook the noodles. If you choose not to use precooked noodles, use 9 and cook according to package directions.
2. Brush your 9 x 12 pan with oil.
3. Spread about 3 T of béchamel sauce thinly over the bottom of the dish. Arrange noodles to cover the bottom. Spread half of the chard and then half of the mushrooms. Drop half of ricotta over in dollops and spread in an even layer. Sprinkle with half of Fontina, and then 4T of Parmesan.
4. Repeat layering using the remaining chard, mushrooms, Ricotta, Fontina, Parmesan and ¾ C béchamel.
5. Cover with noodles and the remaining béchamel sauce. I sprinkled the top with more Parmesan cheese.
You can do this all ahead. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes. Rest for 15 minutes and enjoy. Jim served a Rosso di Montalcino, 2007. Obviously Italian and good.