"lasagna" news and stories

For some home chefs, the notion of creating a meticulously layered Italian lasagna -- even speeding things up with no-boil noodles -- incites a certain amount of stage fright.

So take a cue from the Greeks and try your hand at pastitsio, a layered pasta dish with similar flavors, a fraction of the fuss and a whole new realm of flavor.

This video from the BBC features Chef Rick Stein making pastitsio as part of "Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escape." The recipe calls for a quick meat sauce, penne, a simple white sauce, shredded cheese and a dish in which to layer it all. The concoction is baked and emerges a rich melange of Greek flavors.

Opa!

Lasagna isn't really my thing. I will happily eat it when others prepare it, but I've always found it to be sort of fussy and unappealing to make on my own (all that pasta pre-boiling and careful layering just left me cold). Besides, I always felt like you could get comparable flavors with a pasta bake - noodles tumbled together with garlicky red sauce, sauteed spinach and a carton of ricotta cheese and topped with a generous layer of mozzarella cheese has always been my favorite.

However, having seen the grilled veggie lasagna that Julie posted yesterday, I'm starting to rethink my previous anti-lasagna position. For one thing, the step-by-step pictures she took are really lovely and show off the rustic beauty of the grilled veggies. Her recipe also reminded me that you can use no-bake noodles, rendering one of my lasagna complaints moot. And lastly, seeing it done, it just doesn't look that difficult or fiddly. I may be a convert sooner, rather than later.

How about the rest of you? Are you a lasagna maker or more of a pasta bake person?

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Yesterday, my fridge was in dire need of a cleaning out -- not with disinfectant and a sponge, but with a hungry stomach willing to devour a whole ton of almost-bad veggies. At first, I was thinking about a veggie casserole. Then I remembered that I had dried some homemade egg pasta into fettucini and lasagna noodles. Ding, ding!

Picking up some fennel and cheese at the store, I decided to make a Pernod/Anise-flavored kitchen-sink lasagna. It was oh-so-good (even if I had to wait until 10 PM for it to be done), and shows just how versatile the classic dish is.

Instead of spinach in my ricotta, I sauteed some bok choy with a sprinkle of anise seeds to mix in. And then I set about preparing my lasagna's two layers. One consisted of the fennel, misc. peppers, and onion, with some anise seed sprinkled in as it sauteed, and the other consisted of quickly fried petit pan squash slices. Meanwhile, I reduced a quick sauce of a can of chopped tomatoes, some spices, and some Pernod.

All layered and baked, there was a nice freshness from the vegetables, with the Pernod adding a good zap of flavor to make up for the missing meat. Anise flavor in Italian food is just magic, so if you have any good recipes, please share them below.

I don't know why, but for years I was convinced that lasagna was hard to make. It tasted so good that it had to be difficult. Then I finally made my own, which you can see above, and the rest was history. Below, I'm going to adapt my first and favorite lasagna recipe for the young ones. It will cut a little bit of the flavor, but it will simplify things a whole lot. Still, it's a bit more involved than the other recipes, but should be just fine with a little supervision.

3-Cheese Lasagna
for a 13x9 dish

Ingredients:

Ground beef -- approximately 12 oz, or 3/4 of a pound
1 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 bottle tomato sauce (preferably a thick garlic or cheese-based variety)
Lasagna noodles -- approximately 15
30 oz of ricotta cheese
10 oz package of thawed and drained frozen spinach -- squeezed dry
2 large eggs
1 cup grated parmesan
4-5 cups grated mozzarella

Saute onions and garlic in oil on medium heat until softened. Add the ground beef, and break into pieces with a spatula while it browns. Once browned, add tomato sauce and let it simmer for a little bit before turning off the heat.

Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, spinach, and 3/4 cup of the parmesan together in a bowl, then mix in the eggs.

When all the ingredients are set, layer ingredients in dish as follows:
-Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the dish -- about half a cup.
-Overlap 5 no-cook noodles on top of the sauce so that they span the entire dish.
-Spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture on the noodles.
-Sprinkle about 2 cups of mozzarella.
-Spoon another 1-2 cups of sauce next.
-Repeat the steps once.
-Add a layer of noodles.
-Top with remaining sauce, and then remaining mozzarella and parmesan.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and put it in the oven for 40 minutes before uncovering it carefully and baking for another 40 more -- until the lasagna is bubbly.

I've been cutting down on carbs lately and looking for an excuse to have a big plate of spaghetti topped with sauce and grated parmesan cheese. Hello National Pasta Day!

I could spend the entire day just doing posts for pasta, it's such a versatile food, but I can't do that. Instead, here are several pasta recipes from various sites, including Epicurious, AllRecipes, RecipeZaar, Food Network, The Reluctant Gourmet and The National Pasta Association.

And don't forget the sauce! Here are several recipes from About.com and this one from MealsMatter.org for Southwestern Pasta Sauce.