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CAPE FLAVORS

Nothing as warm, welcoming as lasagna

February 22, 2016

There is nothing quite as warm and welcoming on a cold winter’s day as a steaming pan of lasagna. The name of the dish comes from its Italian origins, where lasagna is the singular noun and lasagne is the plural, although the differentiation in spelling is more geographical. Outside the United States, most use lasagne, while here we spell it lasagna.

Regardless of the spelling, there is no mistaking the layers of tender pasta sheets, spicy tomato sauce and creamy ricotta cheese topped with melted mozzarella and Parmesan. Of course there are some familiar variations to the mix, including ground beef, crumbled sausage and the faithful vegetarian option, steamed spinach.

Before the invention of no-boil noodles, making lasagna was a much messier endeavor than it is now. The pasta had to be par-boiled to a precise degree: not too soft, or they would turn into mush, nor left too hard, or the baking step wouldn’t be enough to cook them completely. Instead of coping with hot, wet sheets of pasta, the lasagna layers can now be assembled straight from the box.

We’ve all likely encountered the two disappointing extremes of lasagna failure: wet and dry. In the former, the water in the sauce or spinach separates and surrounds the stacked layers like a puddle. In the latter, there is so little moisture in either the cheese or the sauce, the experience is more like eating sawdust.

To avoid the first problem, be sure to pre-cook and drain any vegetables you plan to add. Steamed spinach needs to be wrung out in paper towels, and zucchini needs to be roasted or left for a few minutes in a paper-towel-lined colander to release all its moisture. If you don’t make your own tomato sauce, simmer what comes from the jar to reduce and thicken the sauce; a few tablespoons of tomato paste can also help.

If you are adding meat to the sauce, be sure to cook it completely and drain off all the fat before stirring it into the sauce. When using sausage, consider removing it from the casing and cooking the crumbles, as that will make it easier to strain off the fat. Another source of unwanted liquid is the cheese layer.

Most recipes calls for ricotta whisked with egg and herbs. A few techniques can help here. One is to be sure and use whole-milk ricotta, as the lower-fat, skim milk variety tends to be looser. The second is to drain the ricotta overnight in a cheesecloth-lined colander, you’ll be surprised how much liquid collects. The final change is to omit the egg white and use only the yolk, which will better thicken the cheese and herb combination.

Now, to prevent the lasagna from overdrying, be generous with the sauce, starting with spreading almost a cup on the bottom of the pan. When baking the finished product, cover the top with aluminum foil for the first 20 minutes and remove the cover to brown the cheese and release excess moisture during the final 15 minutes of baking.

The key to manageable lasagna is patience, specifically as it relates to cutting and serving a tidy square of the dish. In order for the layers to stay organized when you start in with a knife, they have to wait a few minutes when the pan first emerges from the oven. Think of it the same way as you would a steak or roast - let it sit for about 15 minutes to rest.

Once you have the basics, you can consider some interesting experiments, including substituting a creamy white béchamel for the tomato sauce, often seen in combination with spinach for a decadent vegetarian dish. Another radical change is to use zucchini sliced lengthwise instead of pasta noodles for a low-carb (but not low-cal) version.

For the lasagna in the photo, made with spicy red-pepper chicken sausage and a traditional red sauce, the recipe is included below, along with instructions for a zucchini lasagna. One of the best spinach-béchamel lasagna recipes comes from Cooks Illustrated, so you may want to see their website, online copies of their magazine or cookbooks for instructions on how to make their quite complicated but delicious dish.

Chicken Sausage Lasagna

1 t olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 links chicken & red pepper sausage
2 1/2 C tomato sauce
2 C ricotta cheese
1 C shredded mozzarella
2 egg yolks
pinch nutmeg
1 T parsley
1 t oregano
1 t basil
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 C mozzarella cheese
1/2 C Parmesan cheese


Preheat oven to 375 F. Coat an 9-by-12-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Sauté onion in olive oil in a skillet until softened. Remove and discard sausage casings; place sausage in a skillet. Cook over medium heat, breaking up the clumps into a uniform scramble. Drain any excess fat and stir in tomato sauce, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then stir in ricotta, nutmeg, mozzarella, parsley, oregano and basil; set aside. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place enough pasta sheets in the pan to form a single layer covering the bottom. Spread sauce on pasta and dot with ricotta mixture to cover. Continue layering, keeping back one layer of pasta for the top. Place the final layer of pasta, cover with sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until the cheese is browned and bubbly, about another 15 minutes. Yield: 6 servings.

Zucchini Lasagna

1 lb ground beef or veal
2 C ricotta cheese
1 C shredded mozzarella
2 egg yolks
pinch nutmeg
1 T parsley
1 t oregano
1 t basil
2 medium zucchini
2 1/2 C tomato sauce
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
1/2 t olive oil


Preheat oven to 375 F. Coat an 8-inch-square pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. In a skillet, scramble the ground meat over a medium high heat until no trace of pink remains; drain any excess fat and set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then stir in ricotta, nutmeg, mozzarella, parsley, oregano and basil; set aside. Wash and trim ends from the zucchini, do not peel. Using a mandolin, slice the zucchini lengthwise into strips about 1/8-inch thick. Spread the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for about 10 minutes to remove excess moisture. Remove the zucchini from the oven and assemble the lasagna. Spread 2/3 C of tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan. Place 5 or 6 slices of zucchini in the pan, overlapping them slightly. Spread sauce over the zucchini, add half the cooked meat, dot with half the ricotta mixture and sprinkle with 2 T Parmesan cheese. Place another 5 or 6 slices of zucchini over the cheese. Spread with sauce, remaining meat, the remaining ricotta mixture and 2 T Parmesan cheese. Place a final layer of zucchini on the pan and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, until the top browns, about 35 to 45 minutes. Yield: 6 servings.


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