Lasagne – with an “e”

Well, for those of us who grew up on typical American-style lasagn-“a” – trying to find the equivalent in Italy would most likely lead you to a type of Neapolitan lasagna (only made once a year) featuring lasagne sheets layered with ricotta (substituted in many areas of the US with cottage cheese), as well as red sauce, meat, and mozzarella. Some American traditional styles may also include other ingredients like mushrooms and onions.

Once again, like many other Italian dishes, the intent of lasagn-e was “lost in translation” as it travelled across the Atlantic. Traditional lasange from Emilia-Romana contains one or two ingredients - at the most - layered between marvelously thin and delicate sheets of pasta.

So began another adventure in our “micro kitchen.” First I made the fillings - two for my first attempt. The first was a simple fresh, whole milk ricotta cheese with parsley and a hint of nutmeg. The second consisted of butternut squash seasoned with sautéed onion, parsley, and a shot of amaretto. I added an egg yolk to each filling. I also grated 1 ½ cups of freshly grated Grana Padano to sprinkle over each layer.

For the pasta, I used 3 extra large eggs and approximately 2.5 cups of flour. Again, practice is all you need with the pasta dough and in less than two tries you will be an expert. Or, you can follow the instructions in numerous Italian cookbooks on making pasta with a food processor. I use Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking as my Italian culinary “reference manual.”

You’ll need some space to do this. First, lay out several kitchen towels and lightly flour them. You will lay your pasta sheets out on these as you complete them. Once you have your pasta dough is made, let it rest for 30 minutes, then divide into 4-5 equal sized pieces. Make sure to tightly wrap the other pieces so they do not dry out while you are making your sheets. Make your sheets the same way as noodles using the pasta machine starting with the widest setting and thinning the sheets gradually one setting at a time. I stopped at setting #6, but I would like to get to an even thinner sheet – a goal for next time 

Once you have all of your pasta sheets rolled out you’ll want to cook them before making the actual lasagne. Drop one or two sheets at a time into a large pot of boiling salted water (6 quarts) - after about 30 seconds, take them out (fresh pasta cooks VERY fast) and drop in a pan of cold water to stop the cooking. Rinse them off gently and lay them on towels to dry (you will need a few more towels – I used a beach towel for the post cooking process. Make sure you turn them over several times to keep the sheets from sticking to the towels!

After all the sheets are cooked and dried you can start trimming them to fit in your lasagne pan: I used 9x13 metal pan well greased with olive oil. I also took 2-3 tablespoons of the squash filling, dilute equal amount of water and spread in bottom of pan to prevent sticking. Add your first layer of lasagne sheets, then top with one of the fillings and the Grana Padano. Continue layering (alternate the fillings), topping each layer with a generous helping of Grana Padano. Make sure to leave at least a 1-inch overlap between sheets when you trim an place them in the pan. Leave them a bit long lengthwise also– they will shrink during the cooking.

Once all the sheets are used up, , top the last layer with Grana Padano and place in the oven for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Make sure to watch the last 10 minutes so the cheese does not burn. Let rest about 15 minutes before serving.

These amounts actually made a Lasagne about 1 1/4 inches high, which is not as high as typical American style, but the flavors and delicateness of the pasta will remind you of a savory “strudel.” Another advantage of smaller portions is less worrying about stepping on the scale during your next trip to the gym.

It was a bit of work, but after 2.5 hours – the results were incredible. Another session of eating and moaning was accompanied by a simple salad and a wonderful sparkling white Bordeaux from Modena.

Era Squisito!