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.

Comments

[Ardyth]

Please post your recipe so we can follow along in your footsteps and try the various lasagna recipes. Thanks ac

[Lenore Emery]

GO Ramona!! Admirable and I am resolving to collect all 12 recipes!!! Looking forward, Lenore (EVOO-Cannon Beach Cooking School)

[Margo Mactaggart]

Hi Ramona,
A great site, and the hordes at my house love lasagne, but just how big is "1 batch bechamel sauce"??? I made this lasagne, guesstimating the quantity of bechamel,and it was great ...but I'd prefer NOT to guess.

Looking forward to the next one! MM

[Diva]

Ciao Bella!
Greetings from Firenze.
need an Italian life coach?

I will be glad to share my favorite Lasagna with you!