Click here if you missed part one.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Christmas 2011 – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Christmas seems to be all about relaxing and not going over the top with food. My mother is of Italian American lineage, and we tend to eat on her side of the cuisine tree at this time of year. There is usually always a seafood dish or dinner on Christmas eve and then there is always a roasted meat on Christmas day…. as well as my favorite ; LASAGNA.
BIG SLOPPY LASAGNA:
One thing that I seem to remember from almost all Christmas’s is the Lasagna. The variations through the years include who is preparing it (at one time we used to go to my grandmother’s house for a full on Italian feast… but that was long long ago) and the ingredients. But one thing is constant: that it is always delicious and sloppy.
This year (like last year) Michelle and I made the Lasagna. We made our own spinach noodles, bechamel and ragu for it. Then assembled it and topped it with crappy American style mozzarella. Crappy mozzarella or not, this event/dish always lives up to expectations.
We augmented our Lasagna with a giant joint of roast beef.
My second favorite thing that rolls (or pours) out at Christmas time is Egg Nog. Since we couldn’t find a decent priced Egg Nog without the dreaded high fructose corn syrup we decided to make our own this year. Well, to be honest we would have made homemade nog anyways. With tons of bourbon. Rum is for northerners and midwesterners. Gotta feel sorry for them though, they dont have good food in abundance and they are always cold.
And worth mentioning was our unplanned Pear and Almond tart which we had never made before but turned out well. Thanks to the uncoordinated extended family members whom all decided to send us pears for this one:
I got some beach chairs for christmas. They came in handy the following week I kid you not.
Christmas Lasagna
Ingredients:
1 recipe of Red Sauce (see below)
1 recipe of spinach pasta (see below)
1 recipe of béchamel (see below)
1 large baking dish (about 2 quart/2.3litres) – well greased with butter or bacon drippings
1 1lb chunk of store-crap style mozzarella – cut into slices
2 cups or more of parmesan
Part 1: The Sauce
Ingredients
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp bacon drippings (if not available just substitute more olive oil)
1 large yellow onion – minced
2 small-ish carrots – washed and minced
6 cloves garlic – minced
2 28oz cans of whole plum tomatoes (can be pre-pureed if you like)
11/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp dry oregano – rubbed in your hands until almost a powder
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley or basil (add just before lasagna assembly)
Method
Take tomatoes out of can and crush, using you hands, into a large bowl, they should not be fully pulverized, just chunkily crushed. Add any juices still in cans to bowl.
Add oil and bacon drippings to large pot and set over medium heat. Add onion and carrot, stir for 2 mins then turn heat to med-low and slowly cook until onions are golden and translucent and carrot is very tender (about 10 mins). Add garlic, stir and cook for about 2 mins (don’t let garlic burn!) then add in tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano and wine. Bring heat back to medium and bring sauce to a simmer for about 5 mins then turn heat back down to low.
Using a hand blender, puree sauce until fairly smooth. Allow sauce to slow cook over low heat for at least 45 mins but preferably as long as you can, stirring every once and a while. Taste it a few times and adjust seasoning to your heart’s content.
While the sauce is slow cooking….
Part 2 : Spinach Pasta
Ingredients:
1 lb bag of young spinach
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour (plus more for rolling/dusting)
1 tsp sea salt
Method:
Bring large pot of water to boil and add spinach. Cook until tender (About 5 mins) then drain and squeeze out as much moisture as you possibly can.
Combine spinach, eggs, and a tsp of water in mixing bowl, mix with a fork or something like it.
Create a mound with the flour, punch a well in the center of the mound and then sprinkle the salt all over the flour. Pour spinach mixture into well and then slowly incorporate ingredients (with fork). Once you have a stiff dough, begin to knead adding whatever flour you need to prevent any sticking. Knead about 10 mins then wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 mins.
(At this point you can get your béchamel ready…)
Once pasta has rested, unwrap and then divide into 6 pieces. While working with one piece keep the other pieces covered. (In fact if your not working the dough it should be covered at all times.) Take that piece and flatten into a rectangle sheet and then either pass through a pasta roller (at widest setting, then decreasing size and re-rolling) or roll by hand until pasta is a sheet at 1/16th of an inch thick. Then cut sheet in half.
Get a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper, dust that with flour, lay the two sheets on it then repeat the whole process with the rest of the dough using a new sheet of parchment each time.
Boil the sheets in a large pot of water for a very short time, like 2 mins at most. Gently remove and set aside (keep them separate and on a greased surface that they wont stick to).
While the pasta is resting and the sauce is slow cooking…
Part 3: Bechamel Sauce
Ingredients:
3 tbsp of unsalted butter – cut into little cubes
3 tbsp flour
2 cups milk (whole is preferable)
some fresh ground white or black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp or more fresh ground nutmeg
Method:
In a saucepan over med-low heat melt the butter. Using a whisk slowly incorporate flour into butter until it bubbles. Keep whisking and slowly and steadily start adding the milk in. Bring to a simmer and cook (stirring often) until thick, about 15 mins. Add nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Now that you have everything ready…
Part 4: Assembly
Method:
Preheat oven to 450f/230c
Cover bottom of greased baking dish with spinach pasta sheets (cut to fit and save scraps). Spread a forth of the béchamel over pasta, then sprinkle enough parmesan to cover. Then spread a not to thick layer of red sauce over that (don’t forget to add the fresh basil or parsley to the sauce at this point). Repeat layers 2 more times. Top final layer of red sauce with one last layer of pasta (if you don’t have anymore pasta don’t worry), a layer of béchamel, and arrange the mozzarella over the top.
Bake for 15 mins, turn oven down to 350F/175c then bake another 15 or 20 mins until its bubbling and the cheese on top starts to brown gently. If you like your cheese nice and brown like I do put the lasagna under the broiler for about 4 mins.
Eat and praise the lord.
C POWERS
