Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna - Daring Bakers March 2009 Challenge

I made it! Erhhmm, no, dear, not quite. So I wrote in my calender; posting date the 29th and then last night I saw that my fellow Daring Bakers had their post up on the 27th. And just when you think you're ready and up to speed - WAM! But I'm a posten' anyway:-)

I’ve made homemade ravioli before but never lasagne - and the whole experience has been a real pleasure. This isn’t difficult. Sure it takes time, there are stages and decisions to make along the way but all in all even though I’m a first-time lasagne maker it won’t be the last.

Here's the deal:

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.



I made a vegetarian version of lasagne and used only half of everything (of the original recipe). I threw the rest of the lasagne noodles in the freezer for another time. I ended up with 9 layers of pasta sheets, which is okay, I think - I read somewhere that there should be al least 6 layers for it to be a real lasagne.

Spinach pasta - Pasta Verde - 1 pound - what I used

2 large eggs (65g)
190 g. frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
350 g. all purpose unbleached (plain) flour

I left it in the fridge for two days, it was fine and easier than you'd think to roll the sheets thin with a rolling pin - no, I don't have a pastamaker-thingy. And it worked out fine.

Since it’s still wintery here in Denmark and definitely not tomato season I bought plum tomatoes (more flavour) and made a tomato sauce with a lot of orange juice. This is perfect, if you haven’t reached tomato season yet. This is a chunky version - if you wanted you could pass it through a sieve.

Tomato sauce 500 g.

500 g. fresh plum tomatoes, skinned, seeds removed and diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
Juice from two oranges
A big handful of fresh basil, chopped
A little sugar, a little salt, a little pepper

Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Béchamel - (I didn’t use all of it)

40 g. unsalted butter
40 g. all purpose unbleached (plain) flour
400 ml. milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 1-2 minutes. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water with a little olive oil (so it doesn't stick) to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on a towel or paper towel. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 2 tablespoonful) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center. Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a very solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

Torta Pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina means "Easter cake" in Italian. It's a traditional Easter dish from Liguria in the north-western part of Italy. I cheated a little since I used from-a-package puff pastry and the original recipe calls for homemade dough layered 33 times! Phyllo dough could be another easy alternative.




Ingredients:

450 g. spinach, if fresh; steam and chop 400 g. ricotta cheese, homemadeJ
100 g. onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbs. olive oil
200 g. parmigiano, grated
5 eggs (two the the mixture and three for the small nests in the filling)
Nutmeg, salt and pepper

Steam and chop the spinach. Sautee garlic and onion in a little oil, add spinach, salt, ricotta, parmigiano, a pinch of pepper and nutmeg and two eggs, and mix well.Since I used a false-bottomed cake pan I rolled out the puff pastry so it covered the bottom and sides of the pan. I made a lid to put on top once the filling would be in place.

Now pour the filling on the dough. Make three nests in the filling, and break an egg in each of them. Try not to break the yolk, like I did:-) Put the puff pastry lid on top and try to assemble sides and lid so that it looks tolerable.

Preheat the oven at 200 C.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and place the sheet at the lower half of the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes.

Served cooled.

Minipizzas

To bring with you for lunch, a dinner with the girls, or a snack in the afternoon - minipizzas are perfect. Here I've made them with a durum dough and caramelized fig/goat's cheese-mozzarella/onion and artichok hearts/red bell pepper/goat's cheese-mozzarella variations.

The dough is just your typical yeast, cold water, olive oil, salt, durum flour, and all-purpose flour - I'm sure I'll get back to you with a great pizza dough recipe, but time was short this time. I made 10 minipizzzas - five of each variation. I defrosted and reheated a tomatosauce I made during the summer, where we had tons of ripe tomatos in the greenhouse. If you have fresh figs you can caramelize the onions instead - it's not the same - but you get a certain sweetness anyway.

Variation 1

Tomatosauce
½ Sliced caramelized fig for each pizza
3-4 Onion rings
20 g. Mozzarella and goat's cheese - mixed with a fork

Variation 2

Tomatosauce
½ Sliced artichok heart for each pizza
20 g. Mozzarella and goat's cheese - mixed with a fork
Small bits of red bell pepper to sprinkle on top

Set you oven to about 225 celsius, and bake the pizzas for about 10-15 minutes - dependig on size. Serve with a mixed salad.

Rocket pesto with walnuts

Having just bought 1 kg. of Parmigiano-Reggiano (yum-yum) I'm wondering what to do with it. This excuisite and versitile cheese with all its flavours and history too. Well for starters anyway I've made a pesto. And since its winter and my pantry is full of walnuts (very funny; among other things, okay) I decided to make an alternative pesto recipe. Try it - it's very tasteful!

Rocket pesto with walnuts

100 g. rocket, rinsed and stems trimmed
1 -2 garlic cloves, halved
50 g. walnuts, roasted and cooled
50 g. parmesan
50 - 70 ml. extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice, mustard, freshly grounded black pebber, salt.

Roast the walnuts, rinse the rocket. Put walnuts, garlic, rocket and parmesan in your blender, stir and now and then scrap down the side. When the mixture is smooth, pour in the olive oil bit by bit and add lemon, mustard, pebber and salt to your liking.

If refrigerated pour it in a jar and top it with a little olive oil. It can keep for about a month then. If you want to freeze the pesto (if you've made a larger batch), I suggest you leave out the parmesan for later. When you want to use the pesto mix in the parmesan.