This seafood lasagne incorporates the wonderful flavours of scallops, prawns and crabmeat. It is deliciously rich in flavour, simple to make and freezes like a dream. This makes it a perfect standby for guests popping in any time of the year. You can leave any of the seafood ingredients out of the lasagne according to your personal tastes but make sure you add enough.

1-2 packets of ready to cook Vetta lasagne sheets

2 tablespoons butter

2 leeks, white part, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely grated

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 large cups single cream

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

freshly ground salt and pepper

500g green prawns, peeled and de-veined

250g scallops

meat from 1 cooked mud crab (or 2 sand crabs)

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

(1) Preheat your oven to 375F/ 200C. This is not necessary of you are planning on freezing your lasagne.

(2) Melt the butter in a heavy based frypan over a very low heat. Pop the sliced leek into the pan and cook for about five minutes until the leek has softened.

(3) Add the garlic to the pan and cook for a further minute. Increase the heat slightly and then stir in the flour with a whisk. Gradually add the cream a bit at a time, allowing the sauce to thicken slightly before adding more. When the sauce has thickened to the consistency of whipped cream, add the mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper and stir well.

(4) Put all of the seafood into the sauce and cook gently for about five minutes. Remove the frypan from the heat.

(5) Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the sauce into your lasagne pan and spread over the base. Cover the base of your dish with a layer of lasagne sheets and then spoon a third of your seafood sauce evenly over the lasagne sheets. When you are spooning the sauce, incorporate half of the seafood with the sauce as well. Ideally the top layer of sauce in the lasagne should have no large pieces of seafood (prawns, scallops and lump crab meat) in it.

(6) Cover the sauce with another layer of lasagne sheets. Spoon another third of the sauce over the top of the lasagne sheets (incorporating the rest of the seafood). Once more, cover with a layer of lasagne sheets and then evenly spread the rest of the sauce over the top. If there is a little crabmeat in the sauce on the top, don’t worry – you just don’t want any large pieces of prawns or scallops in it. Generously sprinkle the top of the seafood lasagne with the freshly grated parmesan cheese. If you are freezing the lasagne double wrap it with plastic wrap and freeze it at this point.

(7) Bake the lasagne at 375F/180C for forty minutes so the pasta is cooked and the lasagne is golden and delicious.

The seafood in this recipe was supplied by Princess Charlotte Seafoods and is available at markets throughout Brisbane: phone (07) 3256 9175 to find out market venues.