Lasagna
Sauce:
2 tbs olive oil
2.5 medium onions chopped (save half an onion, uncut for later)
6 cloves garlic, minced (if you love garlic like my family, the garlic might be really more like 8 cloves. Or ten.)
2 lbs (about 900 g) ground meat. Beef is traditional, but I used a mix of half-pork half-turkey
1 can (28 fl. oz. / 796 mL) diced canned tomatoes
2 cups+ hot beef stock
Bay leaf
Salt, pepper
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| Onions and GARLIC. SO MUCH GARLIC |
Season the meat.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.
Soften the onions and garlic. The Monkey was great at stirring!
Add the meat, cook until browned. Break up the pieces with a wooden spoon.
Add tomatoes and stock, to cover the meat.
Put on low simmer, add bay leaf.
While the sauce is simmering, prepare the bechamel sauce.
Bechamel Sauce:
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
3 cups milk
Half an onion (from the sauce)
Bay leaf
5-8 cloves
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
Melt the butter in a medium sized pot. Add the flour and cook 2 minutes, constantly stirring.Remove from heat when cooked.
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| Flour and butter - "Roux" |
"Stab" the bay leaf into the half of onion using the cloves.
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| Onion cloute |
Put the milk in a small pot with the onion contraption. Heat on medium high until milk is steaming, but not boiling. This is called scalding the milk.
Remove the onion cloute and slowly add the milk mixture to the roux while vigorously whisking. Put on medium heat until bubbling, to thicken the sauce. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside.
Now, what I did next might be a bit unorthodox, but I thickened the sauce, without waiting for it to reduce naturally. *Cue the smelling salts*
I couldn't wait anymore!
I took about 4 tablespoons of flour and whisked it with liquid from the sauce in a bowl. When the mixture is smooth, I poured it back into the sauce and let it cook.
Assembly:
I used oven-ready lasagna sheets, but you can use regular lasagna sheets. Cook according to the box, but leave it a little under-done as they will continue to cook in the pan.
1/2 cup grated parmesan
150 g ricotta cheese
2 cups grated mozzarella
Preheat the oven to 350.
The layers: spread a small amount of the tomato sauce on the bottom of a large rectangular casserole pan.
Add enough pasta to cover.
Ad half the tomato sauce.
Bechamel sauce, use a spatula to spread around.
Add spoonfuls of ricotta.
Another layer of lasagna.
Rest of the tomato sauce.
Sprinkle the mozzarella and parmesan.
Put in the oven! 40 minutes should do it (until bubbling and the cheese is deliciously melted and browned)
Before
And about 40 minutes later!
This went over like gangbusters in our house, pretty much finished by noon the next day.For dessert? Gingerbread cake!
Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Curd Topping
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, cut in 1/2" pieces
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses (recipe originally called for "light" molasses. My grocery store had no idea what that was, so I just got regular "fancy" molasses. Dark as night and twice as delicious.)
1 large egg, beaten
2 tsp grated peeled ginger
Preheat oven to 350. I used a square springform pan, but really any 8-9" springform should do.
Whisk flour with the ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and soda. Put butter in a large bowl. Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over the butter, whisk to melt. Whisk in sugar, molasses, egg and fresh ginger. Add dry ingredients, whisk to blend. Pour into pan and bake. Bake about 15 minutes, or when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes, then remove from pan.
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| We're too cool for toothpicks. We use steak knives to check our cakes! |
Topping: The magazine recommended mixing store-bought lemon curd with whipped cream, but that's not how we roll in our house: we make our lemon curd, because it is delicious and we are lemon fiends. This is my recipe for lemon curd which has been lovingly taken from Martha Stewart.
Lemon Curd:
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg, plus 3 egg yolks
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
4 tbs butter, cut into pieces
Pinch of salt
Whisk all of the ingredients except the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continually whisk until thick, 4-5 minutes. Strain through a sieve into a bowl. Add the butter, whisk until melted. Cover with plastic wrap, directly touching the surface of the curd. Refrigerate until cold.
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| Mix mix mix! |
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| Whisk whisk whisk! |
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| Plastic wrap plastic wrap plastic wrap? |
After the cake has cooled, the curd is nice and cold, I did a simple spread for the curd onto the cake.
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| YES |
I was quite impressed with the ginger cake. It was like a big, soft gingerbread cookie with bright, fresh lemon icing (we didn't 'cut' the curd with whipped cream. Why dilute that perfect flavour???). This was a big hit, too. The Monkey is very picky with his cakes, and he loved this. Excellent capper to a big meal of lasagna.
