Daring Bakers: Lasagna

Daring Bakers!


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.

And believe me, it was a challenge. This girl has never made pasta by hand before today.. so it was a little daunting. I waited until just about the last minute possible, but it's easy to say nice things about this lasagna with a belly full of it.

I made the pasta this morning before heading to church. The hardest part of making the dough was getting the eggs, spinach and flour together initially. The kneading was pretty normal, and I let it rest for a few hours. The rolling wasn't too bad either, just a little time consuming. After the first square or two, I stopped trimming the edges and making them perfectly square.. you can't tell once it's in the pasta, so why worry?

Here are my pasta sheets, drying by the window.

When the pasta sheets were fairly dry, I began to assemble the lasagna. I decided not to pre-cook the pasta (gasp!) and do my own thing with the fillings, mostly to help clean out the fridge. The layers were thus:

1. Tomato Sauce (a mix of leftover pizza sauce, Trader Joe's Starter Sauce and some water)
2. Ricotta Filling (light ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg)
3. The Spinach Pasta
4. Random Cheese layers (mozzarella, parmesan)

The lasagna baked (with foil) at 350 for about 35 minutes, then I turned on the broiler to brown the cheese for about 5 minutes (no foil here). I baked in a small rectangular baking dish, so more time would be necessary for the big guys.

Overall, we enjoyed the lasagna. I couldn't really taste the spinach, so I'm not sure it was worth all the time. I do have some extra pasta sheets, so hopefully I can use those creatively and really taste the pasta. In the end, I appreciate the process, but I think I'll stick to no-cook noodles. :)

*Check out the new Daring Kitchen website and join in the fun!