Roasted vegetable lasagne with goats' cheese

It's harvest time - or at least, so the Fortnum and Mason shop window tells me (I was walking past, not doing my shopping there, I hasten to add). Living in a city, you can feel disconnected from these landmarks in the food year, these rural rituals. But even I can spot all the cheap courgettes in the market, and if you have an allotment or vegetable garden, you're probably rushing to use them before they turn into marrows.

A roasted vegetable lasagne feels like a fittingly celebratory dish, stuffed full with shiny plump vegetables - not just courgettes but aubergines, onions, peppers and tomatoes. I've been making it for years. Actually, it was probably one of the first proper dishes I made without a recipe, and I've loved it ever since.

This one is a variant which I created for a cows-milk-intolerant friend, and I thought it was pretty good. Unlike most lasagne, there's no bechamel sauce, but it's rich with tomato sauce instead. Goats' cheese adds some creaminess but also works perfectly with the roast vegetables, but you could use grated Parmesan or plenty of torn-up mozzarella pieces if you prefer.

Vegetarian lasagne can sometimes seem a bit hackneyed, bearing the scars of a thousand bad pub versions and cheap frozen ready meals. But I think a good one, made entirely from scratch, can still be a thing of beauty.

Ingredients

2 courgettes
2 onions
2 peppers, red or yellow
1 aubergine
4 cloves garlic, skins left on
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
A pinch of chilli powder or cayenne pepper
Lasagne sheets, enough to cover two layers in your chosen lasagne dish
100g rinded goats cheese
Handful of fresh basil leaves

Method

Heat the oven to gas mark 6/ 200C / 400F.

Chop the vegetables into medium-sized chunks and put in a baking tray (or two) with the whole garlic cloves. Drizzle with the olive oil. Put in the oven for about half an hour or until the vegetables are all tender.

While the vegetables are roasting, make a simple tomato sauce. Put the tins of tomatoes in a large saucepan with plenty of black pepper, the chilli and oregano. (I know this seems like a lot of tomatoes, but you need more than you think, and I'd rather have a bit of tomato sauce left over than find I don't have enough to cover the top of my lasagne). Simmer for 20-25 minutes or until well reduced but with a bit of liquid still left.

If your lasagne sheets require pre-cooking, cook according to the packet instructions. I sometimes pre-cook them even if they say you don't need to, just to make sure the pasta is properly cooked and not chewy in your final dish.

Peel the skins off the cooked garlic and chop the garlic cloves very roughly. Put a layer of tomato sauce in an ovenproof dish, then a layer of lasagne, then a layer of vegetables and garlic. Repeat, finishing with a third layer of tomato sauce.

Bake for 20 minutes, then add the slices of goats' cheese and bake for another 10. Sprinkle with fresh basil leaves to serve.