Back to Cooking - Lasgna

Hello everyone, and while Ike is recovering nicely I wanted to get back to some cooking on the blog. Last Sunday we were talking about what to have for dinner and the subject of Lasagna came up.  Now, Sandy and I have different ideas about Lasagna - hers very traditional and mine notsomuch..... 
We has always had to either compromise, where neither of us were perfectly happy or dirty two different pans, and try to fit them into the oven.  Well, we found the solution - A three tray lasagna pan. That pan allows for each "tunnel" to be constructed independently of any other.  The ingredients can be completely different as well as the sauces. 

Sandy's was very traditional Lasagna noodles cooked al dente and a combo of ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella combined with and egg and some spices for the cheese filling.  We used a traditional red sauce and topped with shredded moz and grated Parmesan.  It was very good.

For mine, I first made a Bechamel sauce.  3 tablespoons Butter, 3 tablespoons flour and cooked it into a roux.  Then added about 2 cups of warm Milk (I would have like to used a blend of whole milk and half an half but didn't have any) and then 4 oz of Shredded Havarti, and 2 oz of shredded mozzarella and 2 oz  of shredded Asiago.  When that was incorporated and smoothly melted in I added some freshly grated nutmeg (maybe an 1/8 of a teaspoon).  Removed from heat and began to prepare the noodles and sauce. 
The sauce consisted of my traditional red sauce but I added some Hot Italian Sausage to it and then cooked the sauce down to tighten it up a little.  By that time the noodles were ready and assembly began.

I had sliced up some fresh green pepper and baby portabella mushrooms and proceeded to layer 2 of the three tunnels alternating sauce, noodle vegetables and Bachamel until they were full.  I left a layer of bechamel and grated parm on the top and cooked covered for 25 minutes at 375* and then reduced the temp to 325* and finished uncovered for 15 minutes.  I was very happy to see that excess moisture of the vegetables were absorbed by the al dente noodles and I think some of the bechamel sauce as the end product was firm and not watery.  We completed the meal with a salad and garlic bread and a very nice Merlot. 
We finished up with a very good "Ice Wine" from Canada - very sweet and almost syrup-like. It was a very nice way to end the meal.

Wine Pairing - Chateau St.Jean

Hi Everyone;

Every year or so a local Italian Restaurant, Maggiano's has a wine pairing and we always try to arrange our schedules to attend. Very good wine, with outstanding and often times unique offerings. I always try to ask the chef for one of the recipes, one that strikes me as very good, interesting and many times both. Last year was a bitter green salad with fried peach croutons with a white balsamic vinaigrette (I will share that one later) and this year it was the potato casserole that really struck us all as a great side dish to the herb encrusted tenderloin. It was paired with the Sonoma County Pinot Noir.

The other very good wines were;

Fume`Blanc - very light and crisp great wine to sip on warm evening on the patio

Chardonnay - The wine that put them on the map

Pinot Noir - soft tannins that stand up very well to food

Cinq Ce`pages - Complex and one to keep and open in a few years - it will get better and better

The chef downplayed the difficulty but again the resulting dish was anything but simple in its taste profile. He gave me the basics, and I tried to remember, so, here goes my attempt to recount it:

Russet Potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Heavy Cream

Fontina Cheese

Nutmeg

Preheat Oven to 400*

Wash and peel your potatoes. Slice in 1/4" slices. Coat with Olive oil and salt & pepper to taste.

Place on cookie sheet and place in pre heated oven for 20 minutes. This allows the potato to par-bake and become semi soft. To test for doneness, stick a knife blade into the potato slice and it should not face any resistance.

Remove potatoes from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375*

In pre-buttered or oiled casserole dish, start with a layer of the pre

cooked potatoes on the bottom of the dish. Follow up with a layer of Fontina Cheese, then a small amount of heavy cream (for my size dish I used 3 potatoes and 8 oz of heavy cream total)

Then grate nutmeg to over the first layer. Repeat the process until casserole is full (or out of potatoes :) Final layer should have Cheese and nutmeg on the top.

Place back in oven for 20-25 minutes - or until the mixture is creamy and starting to turn a nice brown on the top.... The result seem very close to a Bechamel sauce without the work... I broiled mine for about 3 minutes at the very end to get it nice and crusty on top....

Take a look - Served it with a Black and Blue Prime KC Strip.... Mmmm