The Lasagna Project

May's Lasagna

May's Lasagna

When I announced to everyone that I was marrying Don, some of my friends, knowing me very well, asked if I had told Don yet.

It is not that I am bossy, but I like telling people what to do.

That is why May's lasagna was one of the most enjoyable to make.  It simply involved some supervision, and when I had to leave briefly in the afternoon, I begged my sister not to move away from the stove. I was afraid the sauce would burn even though my sister is a much better cook than I am and certainly more conscientious.

Nola and the Sicilian made the pasta and here is the beautiful green lasagna set off by the irises from my sister's garden.

My family and sister's friend Dierdre enjoyed the lasagna but in my anxiety I forgot to make anything else so I am afraid people left a little hungry.

This recipe was announced as the best lasagna in the world in Bon Appetit. I don't know about that but it was one of the best we ever had. Here's the recipe.  Photos to come.

The Thanksgiving Lasagna(and the So Much On My Plate lasagna)

Thanksgiving Lasagna (through every fault of the Sicilian, this entry should have been posted at least a month ago! But it does contain the link to the recipe used for the second best lasagna so far, at least in Don's humble opinion.)

The project that you have in mind now gains momentum. - Chinese Fortune Cookie

Well, it is nice to know that in October my year-long project is finally going to gain momentum. As faithful as I have been in making the lasagnas every month, I have not been so faithful in blogging about them.

Having the momentum now, I will start with the most recent lasagna –yesterday’s—and fill in the other 5 or 6 months as I go. It has been a bit of an adventure.

About a year or so ago, October 15th to be precise, I came across a Lucy Waverman recipe for lasagna in the Globe and Mail. And made it. It took the entire day as I was rookie back then. (Wait a minute, it still takes me an entire day).

In any case, the Sicilian loved it and throughout this year has held that one up as the standard, the only exception being May’s lasagna, which so far has been the best. So I wondered-- was the Waverman recipe as good as we remembered? Our friend, Mary Griffin from Victoria also said it was her favourite.

The Capers store, on Fourth and Vine, was an excellent source for the ingredients—all of them organic. The recipe calls for veal, but I substituted bison meat.

The S made the pasta using a manual pasta machine, and everything went smoothly as usual with me only scalding my feet once with hot water (taking the pasta sheets out of boiling water after precisely 1 minute without tearing them—ha!—let an acrobat from Cirque du Soleil do any better.)

Just one more thing, Red Fife wheat is a wonderful wheat and brimming not only with wholesomeness but also with a whole lot of Canadian history. Ask Jonathan at True Grain bakery in Cowichan Bay about it. However, the flour is not suitable for béchamel sauce as I discovered. No doubt those early Canadian pioneers made their béchamel using some other flour.

The lasagna was a success and was as good as we remembered.

War and Peace update: The French have just taken Moscow, but Moscow is deserted much to Napoleon’s chagrin. Stay tuned.  Confession: I have put W and P away for awhile because I am reading the latest Peter Robinson novel.

Here's Lucy Waverman's A Lasagna To Love recipe:

Lasagna is comfort food that everyone loves but never considers making for dinner. It has been featured at so many potluck dinners in so many awful variations that it's lost respect. But lasagna, when properly prepared, is a taste delight.

Other homey dishes that have been ruined through the use of shortcuts and packaged ingredients, or simply produced as bad frozen dinners, include chicken pot pie and shepherd's pie. Over the next few months. I will be making these dishes the way they were meant to be made -- from scratch and with love.

Here is a proper lasagna as found in northern Italy. It's not the cheesy variation found in the south but a highly sophisticated pasta dish. (If you want a cheesier version, add sliced fontina or mozzarella in between the layers.)

It's an easy recipe, but there are a lot of steps. You can make much faster versions using bottled sauces and ricotta, but this one is light-years ahead. (I'm ashamed to say that four of us ate the whole lasagna, which actually feeds 8 to 10.)

The sauce recipes can also be used separately. The meat sauce, which freezes well, is great with spaghetti, and the béchamel makes a great side dish when mixed with cooked vegetables and topped with cheese and breadcrumbs.

Meat Sauce

I like a mixture of veal and pork, but you can use all veal. My picks for tomatoes are either San Marzano Italian tomatoes or organic ones.

Remember, this is a meat sauce not a tomato sauce with meat.

2 796-millilitre cans of tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

2 ounces pancetta, chopped

2 cups chopped onion

½ cup finely chopped carrots

½ cup chopped celery

2 teaspoons chopped fresh garlic

¼ cup chopped Italian parsley

1 pound ground veal

1 pound ground pork

Salt and freshly ground pepper

½ cup white wine

2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Chop tomatoes and reserve. (Juices can be saved for another recipe.)

Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add pancetta and sauté for 1 minute.

Add onions, carrots and celery and cook gently for 10 minutes or until vegetables are very soft and begin to brown. Stir in garlic and parsley and cook for 3 minutes more.

Increase heat to medium. Add veal and pork, stirring to break up clumps of ground meat. Sauté until meat loses its pinkness, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add wine and boil until wine is mostly evaporated and mixture is saucy, about 4 minutes. Stir in stock, tomato paste and reserved tomatoes.

Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 1½ hours, then remove the lid and turn heat up to medium-low. Sauce should be thick and very tasty.

Simmer gently for a few minutes if it is too thin. Reseason if needed. Makes about 9 cups of sauce.

Béchamel Sauce

½ cup butter

½ cup flour

6 cups milk

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pinch nutmeg

Heat butter over medium heat in a heavy pot. When butter has melted whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute or until flour is cooked, being careful not to brown the flour.

Remove from heat and slowly whisk in milk.

Add bay leaf, return to heat and bring to boil, stirring. Season well with salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Makes about 6 cups.

Lasagna

The first step is deciding what noodles to use.

My preference is dried noodles, either the instant kind or the regular. (Even the instant kind should be boiled for about 1 minute before using.)

If you use fresh, buy the thinnest you can find. Since lasagna noodles come in many different sizes, the amount you will need will vary.

14 lasagna noodles (approximately)

1 recipe béchamel sauce

1 recipe meat sauce

2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

Slip in noodles and bring back to boil. Boil according to package directions, usually about 10 minutes. Drain noodles and, using tongs, place them in a single layer on a tea towel or parchment paper.

Butter or oil a 9-by-13-inch ovenproof gratin dish.

Spread a thin layer of béchamel sauce on the base.

Divide remaining béchamel sauce and meat sauce into 3 portions.

Cover the layer of béchamel with noodles. Top noodles with one third of béchamel sauce and one third of meat sauce. Sprinkle with ½ cup Parmesan cheese.

Repeat layering twice, finishing with meat sauce. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan and dot with butter.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake pasta in upper third of oven for 45 minutes or until a crust forms on top and the filling is bubbling. Cover loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes if lasagna is getting too dark. Serves 8 to 10.

The Pacific Palate lasagna

Oops!  Some folks have arrived here looking for the lasagna recipe Don talked about on Pacific Palate this morning.  A link to it is posted on the Pacific Palate blog, but you can also find it on the Epicurious website, right here.  Sorry about the confusion.  It must be said that we made our own lasagna noodles for this dish, and it really makes a difference, but you can try the store-bought stuff as well.

Sicilian?

"Don't you think" continued Ms. Molfrey, " it all sounds rather" she searched her mind for an adjective which would adequately sum up the dark and terrible complexities of the matter in hand, "Sicilian?"

Barnaby thought it sound about as Sicilian as a stick of Blackpool rock.

Faithful Until Death by Caroline Graham

Nobody in Italy eats lasagna. Well, there was no lasagna in Sicily, but the lasagna I had in Rome was dark and complex like my Sicilian.

The wine bar, Cul de Sac, was recommended to us by Judy of Divina Cucina. We went to have the wild boar pate with chocolate. However, there for the first time in Italy I saw lasagna on the menu. The lasagna was pasta (home-made of course) and ground meat and nothing else--no tomato sauce, bechamel or cheese.  I recommend it (but the pate was more complex.) You really want to go there to try the wines.

It is a funny habit of mine. When I have my first sip of red wine, I reflect on all the men in my life-- past and present-- and mentally savour them, my lovers. I am so grateful. When I have my first sip of white wine, I think upon the city Iam in , the food I am eating and fthe friends I am with. It is an odd tic of mind and palate.

The restaurant we really loved and that didn't serve lasagna was in our neighbourhood in La Travestere. Il Mane di Patti.  It was almost as good as Zambri's in Victoria. The antipasto was bresoala, with buffola, grapefruit slices and arugula. The mains were pasta made with guanciale for the S and gnocchi with sage for me. Did I mention the braised artichokes? Dessert was a delicate sugar cage of tiny wild strawberries and custard. One litre of wine and desert wine. 74 euros.

Now, as for War and Peace, Natasha is getting hit on by Anton, Mr. Superficial--the rat. No, that is giving rats a bad name.

Tutor Lunch

I am very excited about going  to Lasagnaland. If I can't find the perfect lasagna there, there is always Mario Batali's lasagna in this month's Gourmet to try when I get back. I expect it will take only four days to make. In the meantime, here is a picture of the tutors at the writing centre. They are smart, hard-working, and totally lovable.

March's Lasagna?

March 27, 2006

      March is not a good month for lasagna if one has given up meat for Lent. So the lasagna has to be seafood or vegetarian. After last month, I wasn't keen to try vegetarian again, and how tiresome and disconcerting to find carrots in what is supposed to be a decadent meal. Seafood it is. How does one make a seafood lasagna that doesn't overwhelm the delicate taste of seafood? So many of the recipes I looked at called for a can of mushroom soup. What? (I called my mother; she suggested I use lots of sour cream instead.)

      Which leads us to the next challenge. What is the definition of lasagna? This month's crab lasagna roll-ups with their creamy artichoke and mushroom filling seem to be brunch fare. Can lightweight brunch fare be classified in the genus of Lasagna veritas? I felt I needed to drink a martini and smoke a cigar to counteract any elements of  making "bridge" food.

    The good thing about fake lasagne is that they are easy and quick to make. Or at least for me. The Sicilian cooked and picked the crab (from Mad Dog Crabs in Duncan). He also chopped the onion. Readers, do not believe Martha Stewart when she says if you have a lit candle nearby while chopping onions, you will not cry. Martha S, in this case, lies. Either that or the smoke from my cigar was getting in the Sicilian's eyes. The S also made the rest of the filling and rolled the puppies up. I sprinkled the cheese on top, though. Another proof that this lasagna wasn't the real thing was that it took only 25 minutes to bake. Ha! No self-respecting lasagna will bake for less than 45 minutes.

   Half an hour later, we were eating crab roll-ups with a green salad and watching the new episode of Battlestar Galactica. The weird thing is that the lasagna tasted a bit like mushroom soup.

[As for War and Peace, the Rostovs are out hunting an old wolf which I bet represents old Russia and the family don't even know that! I will keep you posted.]

Stayed tuned for next month when I report on real Italian lasagna.

This month's recipe can be found here:

http://food.sunset.com/sunset/recipefinder.dyn?action=printCardB&recipe_id=659236

Heart

February 25, 2006

We went to a funeral yesterday of a man who loved food and his family. We are pretty sure he loved them equally. All of his children talked about how Robert loved to cook for his family and the passion he had for food. One of his sons, however, let us in on his father's top cooking tip which always guarantees an excellent meal: Cook with your heart.

    

Although my lasagna was heart-shaped, I can't honestly say I cooked with my heart. As a result, the result, for all the work involved, was mediocre. Sure, there were some nice touches: the roasted peppers and the smoked cheese (the flavour of which came through). Our house guests the next day enjoyed the lasagna immensely, but Don and I found it lacking. Who knows why?

I think it may have been my frazzled and unenthusiastic approach to the dish which did it in. My mother always says if you want to bake the perfect cake, you must start with an absolutely clean kitchen and a  glamorous appearance (clean hair and clothes, lipstick, the works). I always thought that approach was over the top, but I now see that as my mother's way of cooking with heart and treating the baking as a process worthy of respect.

[Funnily enough, we did make an excellent cake using the same tin.]

   

I also think that the ready chopped garlic I used (I know, I know--how could I?) added a sharp and rather chemically taste. Never again! I am so used to using the wonderful and conveniently minced garlic that our Garlic Guy from Gabriola makes that I didn't think that the grocery store version could be so bad. Well, that is one lesson I learned: do your own or use the Garlic Guy's.

Taking heart, I am looking forward to next month's lasagna. NO shamrock shaped pans but I may need to get another special pan for this lasagna. (This lasagna is going to be so good...) The universe (and Ardyth) seem to be pointing the way to seafood lasagna, but I promise you this one will be made in the right spirit and in the memory of Robert Fong's love for family and food.

Ricotta Almond Cake from Sugar by Anna Olson

Here is the cake recipe. We made it with the leftover ricotta cheese from the lasagna. Anna Olson's recipes are always good. If you want to purchase the book from Amazon.ca and save 34% off list price, click here.

Cake

4 eggs at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup creamy ricotta cheese

1/2 teaspoon  lemon juice

1 Tblsp lemon zest

11/2 tsp rum

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 2 Tblsp ground almonds

11/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Topping

3/4 cup creamy ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp milk

1 cup sliced almonds

For Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and line with parchment a 10-inch springform pan. In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat eggs, sugar and oil on high speed until thick and pale, about 8 minutes. Add ricotta, juice, zest, rum, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until blended. Remove bowl from mixer.

In a separate bowl, sift together ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt (adding back almonds that remain in sifter). Add to ricotta mixture in 3 additions, whisking by hand after each addition. Pour batter in springform  pan and bake until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.

For Topping: Blend together ricotta, egg, 1/4 cup sugar, zest and vanilla. Heat together milk and 2 Tbsp sugar. Pour over sliced almonds and toss to coat. Pour over sliced almonds and toss to coat.

Allow cake to cool 6-8 minutes after coming out of the oven. Spread ricotta topping over cake and sprinkle with glazed almond. Increase overn temperature to 375 F and return cake to oven for 15 minutes, until almonds have browned. Cool cake completely before removing springform pan.

February's Lasagna: Hearts and Sisters

February 14, 2006

The LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) publishes a glossy magazine every month featuring food and drink, and it is rather aptly called Food and Drink. Now, before you turn up your nose at the thought of mining a free food magazine for recipes, let me remind you that Bon Appetite's humble beginnings were the same.

Our sisters, who both live in Ontario, independently, recommended this recipe to me. Both had friends who made the recipe with much success and in fact, Cathy, Don's sister, made it to much applause to a tough critic, their mother.

As I bought the rather expensive ingredients (4 red peppers for 7 dollars??) and contemplated the time investment, I almost gave up on the project. However that would be to-o-o-o embarrassing as this is only my second lasagna. It isn't like I am trying to cook every recipe in a Julia Child cookbook or anything. All I can say, I am glad I'm doing only one of these puppies a month.

To add to the pressure, Don announced on CBC this morning that I am making this heart-shaped lasagna for him for dinner tonight.(He bought the heart-shaped pan for me, which doesn't sound  too romantic unless you are a foodie or me.) As a result, I am having performance anxiety and thinking it would be nicer to cuddle up with War and Peace instead. I am at a pretty exciting part of the novel: Pierre has left his cold wife and is thinking of becoming a freemason! I will let you know how it all turns out. Don is putting the Champagne (thanks Steph and Jeff!) in the fridge, so I suspect it will all be fine.

February's Recipe

Roasted Red Pepper and Portobello Mushroom Lasagna

From Food and Drink Holiday Edition (LCBO) 2005

SAUCE

2 tbsp olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 large onion, chopped

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes

Two 28 oz cans diced tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato paste

Salt and freshly ground pepper

LASAGNA

1 lb portabello mushrooms (about 6)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic or red wine vinegar

4 large roasted red peppers-jarred is fine- sliced about 2 cups

One 360 g pkg fresh lasagna noodles

3 cups shredded smoked provolone or caciocavallo cheese

CHEESE FILLING

2 eggs

One 475 container ricotta cheese

1/4 chopped fresh basil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 freshly ground pepper

1. For the sauce, in a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, carrots, celery, onion, basil, oregano and hot pepper flakes for about 8 minutes or until very soft. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, for about 30 minutes or until very thick. Using an immersion blender, puree until fairly smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let cool completely. Alternatively, puree cooled sauce in an upright blender or food processor in batches as necessary.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450F.

3. Trim stems from mushrooms and slice caps into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with oil and vinegar. Spread out in a single layer. Roast for about 10 minutes or until browned and tender. Let cool.

4. Pat roasted red peppers dry with paper towel. Set aside.

5. For the cheese filling, in a bowl, whisk eggs, until blended. Blend in ricotta, basil, salt and pepper.

6. To assemble: grease a 13x9 inch 3L baking dish. Trim lasagna noodles to fit baking dish. (Use trimmings in a centre layer and use whole noodles for bottom and top layers.) Spread 1 cup (250 ml) sauce in the bottom of prepared dish. Place one-quarter of the noodles on sauce. Spread with one-third of the remaining sauce, sprinkle with one-half each of the mushrooms and red peppers. Sprinkle with one-third of the shredded cheese. Top with another quarter of noodles and spread with ricotta cheese filling. Place another quarter of noodles on top of filling and spread with another third of sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mushrooms and red peppers and another third of shredded cheese. Top with remaining noodles, spread with remaining sauece and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

6. To bake, cover dish with greased foil. Bake at 375F for about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for about 15 minutes longer or until the centre is hot and edges are bubbling.

7. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Italian Food

February 3rd, 2006

I love Italian food the the best. I love Italian wine the best. I also happen by coincidence to love an Italian man the best.

Tonight I am making polenta not lasagna. I have discovered in my arctic explorations some frozen juniper beef sausages, purchased May 05, in my freezer. Must do something with them, no? Best loved Italian man, aforesaid, not in town. In Toronto, eating at a Cajun restaurant. Leaving his promiscuous cat, Cocoa, with me. See Figure 1. Cat is lovely but cannot cook.

Please dear universe, when I have Alzheimer's or dementia, someone find this blog (and my personal cookbook in the kitchen beside the microwave) and make me the food I love. Did I mention Italian?

The Food of Love: Lasagna

Other people vow to lose weight or learn to scuba dive as their New Year's resolutions. I wanted to make one or two resolutions that I knew I would keep: make the perfect lasagna and read War and Peace (only five pages a day!)

In my enthusiasm for the project, I thought I would make 52 lasagnas. Fortunately, Don persuaded me that 52 lasagnas were 51 too many, and we compromised on 12. Lasagna of the month! What a noble undertaking! What a courageous journey of culinary self-discovery!

Somehow, nobody else thinks making the perfect lasagna is a noble undertaking. And Don is a little disappointed that, unlike Belle de Jour, I won't have a book and film out of this blog. Or even racy bits.

I guess the lasagna is a far too humble a dish: the one dish you have when you want to show your family you love them, and you want to clean out the fridge.

January's Lasagna: Chicken Livers and Champagne?

January's lasagna is an interesting little number from "The Food of Italy" an obscenely expensive ($300 used hardcover) book. The recipe called for ingredients not normally found in the average Canadian Living lasagna: chicken livers, heavy cream, vermouth, and egg. This variation of lasagna is the kind that you make with bechamel sauce (you know those finicky time-consuming ones that have little or no tomato sauce in them.)

And no, for your information, I did not make my own pasta. When you spend New Year's Eve afternoon (is that an oxymoron?) with houseguests who insist on drinking Champagne or dirty martinis and "helping" in the kitchen, you don't want to be making your own pasta. I suspect though I could persuade an Italian husband to make some nice fresh pasta for next month's recipe.

The lasagna was a total success (obviously when guests are both hungry and drunk). Sparklers were lit, pots were banged with wooden spoons and the year was greeted with a surprising optimism --possibly due to the fact that no one was hurt when Don "cleavered" as opposed to "sabred" the bubbly.

I am planning next month's lasagna and tacky is my middle name. If I can find a heart-shaped pan, I'm all over it.

January's Recipe

Lasagne al Forno

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion finely chopped

1 small carrot finely chopped

1/2 celery stalk finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

4 oz pancetta, sliced

1 lb. ground beef

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, and nutmeg

3 oz chicken livers, trimmed and finely chopped

1/4 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine

11/3 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 egg beaten

1 batch bechamel sauce (see recipe below)

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 oz freah lasagne verde or 6 sheets dried

1 cup mozzarella, grated

2/3 cup Parmesan, grated

Serves 6

To make the meat sauce, heat the butter in the frying pan and add the chopped vegetables, garlic and pancetta. Cook over moderately low heat for 5-6 minutes, or until softened and lightly golden. Add the ground beef, increase the heat a little and cook for 8 minute, or until coloured but not browned, stirring to break up the lumps. add the oregano and nutmeg and season well.

Stir in the chicken livers and cook until they change colour. Pour in the vermouth, increase the heat and cook until it has evaporated. Add the beef stock and tomato paste and simmer for 2 hours. Add a little hot water, if necessary, during this time to keep the mixture moist, but towards the end allow all the liquid to be absorbed. Stir in the cream, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Stir in the egg.

Put the bechamel ina a saucepan, heat gently and stir in the cream. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9x6x3 inch flameproof dish.

If you are using fresh pasta, cook in batches in a large saucepan of boiling salted water, al dente. Scoop out each batch with a slotted spoon as it is done and drop into a bowl of cold water. Spread the sheets out in a single layer on a kitchen towel, turning them over once to blot dry each side. Trim away any torn edges.

Spread half the meat sauce in the dish. Scatter with half the mozzarella, then cover with a slightly overlapping layer of pasta sheets. Spread half the bechamel over this and sprinkle with half the parmesan. Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of bechamel and Parmesan.

Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and allow to rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Bechamel Sauce

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

pinch grated nutmeg

2 1/2 cups milk

1 bay leaf

Heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour and nutmeg and cook, stiring, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in milk. Add the bay leaf, return to the heat and simmer, stirring often, until the sauce thickens. Season, cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming, and cool. Discard the bay leaf.