Skip to main content

Lasagne

I decided to use some of that tomato sauce I canned last summer to make lasagne. I started by cranking out two servings of sheet pasta on my Kitchenaid pasta rollers. No, they aren't pretty. I finally decided after a few tries that thicker sheets were more in keeping with my pasta skills. The sheets turned out to be thin enough without turning them into cheesecloth.

I mixed together a filling of eggs, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese.

Eggplants are sponges. They hold all sorts of water; if you can get rid of the water, they soak up lots of flavor. Freezing lasagne is a perfect way to accomplish this goal---you just squeeze the eggplant pieces like sponges once they thaw out. Once that was done, I cut up the eggplant and sautted it for a few minutes.

I also microwaved some frozen vegetables to add to the mix.

I coated the bottom of the pan with olive oil. I then put down a bottom layer of pasta sheets, using the ugly ones first.

Next came a thick layer of filling, using somewhat more than half the bowl of filling.

That was followed by a layer of tomato sauce.

I put the mixed vegetables on top of the sauce.

Next came a pasta layer, the rest of the filling, and the eggplant.

I finished the lasagne with another layer of pasta and the remainder of the tomato sauce. No bechamel---my friend Tom considers bechamel on lasagne a capital offense.

After 45 minutes at 350 degrees, I pulled it out of the oven.

I let the dish cool for 15 minutes then dug in. Fresh pasta coupled with ricotta gives the entire dish a soft, comforting warmth that is hard to beat. I really enjoyed my dinner and I have enough for two more meals.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asheville NC: Luella's BBQ

Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hapeville: Pit Boss BBQ

I just had a very satisfying meal at Pit Boss BBQ in Hapeville. I missed it on my first drive down the street---its location in the back of a liquor store is pretty low key. However, I considered that location to be auspicious for the quality of my meal, and I turned out to be right. The smoke billowing out of the chimney greeted me as I pulled into my parking space. The restaurant offers pork ribs and pulled pork, chicken, brisket, wings, and burgers. This is a popular place, so expect to wait a few minutes in line and then a few more minutes for your plate to arrive. In the mean time, you can entertain yourself with the Theater of BBQ that the store presents. The counter is a frontpiece to the main stage of BBQ as revealed by the kitchen window. The front of the kitchen centers around the grill with its burgers. The doors of the smoker fill the back of the kitchen. When they open, they reveal a full company of smoking meats. I was so entranced by the huge stack of ribs tha...
1 comment
Read more

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
2 comments
Read more