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| I know they say dogs don't experience human emotions, but I think Kimmie's sad looking face expresses how I feel when I let you all down. |
It started out with a recommendation on a pasta cooking pot with a fancy French sounding name and leapt headlong into a request from a good friend to make a few pans of lasagna for her son and the rest of his cast / crew mates at Grove City High School. I really wanted to put the pot through some paces in the kitchen and start the breaking-in process. Fortunately, it takes an army to put on a production of Les Miserables and that army needs fed during tech week. They don't want anyone passing out from hunger during the long and grueling sessions leading up to performance weekend. It started out smaller than it ended up being, but it was still a treat to cook for the kids. They seemed to really enjoy the food and made quick work of it once we started serving it. I even went out on a limb and made a pan of meatless lasagna. Vegetarian is never my first instinct, but I am always willing to do it when a good friend asks. Based on the crowd reactions and the performance of the new pasta pot, I believe it all turned out rather well. -fist pump-
I put a good combination of cheeses and good noodles in my lasagna, but I think we all know that the heart of any good lasagna is the sauce. Since I considered the vegetarian to be the more challenging of the two alternatives, I started with that. I coarsely chopped carrots, zucchini, red bell peppers, and onions and sauteed them in olive oil and garlic until they were tender and starting to brown on the edges. Then I added tomato sauce, grated Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheeses, garlic, oregano, sweet basil, salt and just a touch of sugar. I know many cringe at the sight of more than one of those ingredients. I will say that I have never called my sauce authentic. I don't imagine it adheres to anything even close to an Old World Italian recipe. That is because my people don't hail from anywhere close to Italy. It is just the unique combination of seasonings and other ingredients that I have found pleases the widest range of palates and most importantly - MY OWN. - smile- I simmered the sauce in a Le Creuset dutch oven until it had suitable body. Then I introduced it to some cooked lasagna noodles, cottage cheese, sliced Mozzarella, Provolone, and Asiago cheeses. I do three complete layers with a single variety of sliced cheese on each layer and cottage cheese and sauce on every layer. If this were math class, the correct order of operations in my kitchen is noodle, cottage cheese, sauce, and sliced cheese. As a ball park, I use slightly more than a pound of cottage cheese and 8 ounces of each type of sliced cheese for a full pan of lasagna.
Since this was not my first rodeo, I figured the meat sauce would be a slam dunk. This went against the admonition I have given to many others when cooking in large quantities... That admonition would be "don't even think about seasoning to taste when cooking big food." I advise folks to make sure they have a complete recipe. Measure everything by weight. Trying to season 20 quarts of meat sauce to taste turned out to be just as time-consuming as I warned others it could be. And if not for waiting for my backup taster to get home and sample the sauce... I might have been a Seinfeld episode in the making and over seasoned the sauce. -grimace- When I had finally reached the point of running out of key spices and feeling that it might NEVER be right, I decided to wait until my wife got home and could check it for me. In the hours the sauce bubbled away pleasantly , the seasonings hit their peak and upon her arrival, she tasted it and declared it needed no further tinkering. - long sigh of relief - I swear I could faintly hear the refrain of Brady Paisley singing Waiting on a Woman. -big smile-
In the 20-quart roaster, I combined three #10 cans of tomato sauce (Midwest Fancy), one half pound each of grated Romano, grated Parmesan, and Grated Asiago, 5 pounds of Italian sausage (Carfagna's Italian Festival blend), 5 pounds of ground sirloin, and the aforementioned combination of spices. The meats were pre-cooked and drained and I used Penzey's spices for all but the sugar (Domino, if that matters to you). I suppose I could tell you exactly how much of each of the spices, but a cook has to have at least one secret. -sly grin-
Once the sauce was ready, I layered the meat lasagna similar to the meatless one I described earlier with one key difference. In the middle layer of the meat lasagna, I also include thinly sliced old-fashioned capicollo (spicy Italian ham). I think the words old-fashioned are a polite way of saying fatty as the other version of this product is noticeably leaner. Since the point of adding it is to kick up the flavor, I think fattier works just fine in this case. If you are getting your cholesterol checked tomorrow, please don't ask me to make you lasagna for dinner. You will be happy, but not your doctor.
I am sure as you are reading this, you are wondering just how many pans equals a lasagna love affair for the Shade Tree Chef. The original request for three pans turned into four and a separate request came in from another friend. Total number of pans was 5. All assembled after work and refrigerated overnight to be baked not quite 24 hours later. I think there is some disagreement in my household about this too. By my wife's arithmetic, 5 pans = sheer madness. Since I am the cook and the author, I am going to stick to my original premise and say it is indeed a love affair. And everyone seemed to love eating it... So I think they've got my back.
In closing, I will say again I am sorry for the long hiatus. Hopefully, this new installation whets your appetite once again for my amateurish stylings in the kitchen and on the page. If you keep reading, I'll keep writing. -big smile-
Your Dining Scout and Shade Tree Chef,
Michael Hurd aka Big Mike
www.penzeys.com
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| Almost finished pan of meatless lasagna. Will add a generous shake of grated cheeses just before baking. |
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| I guess you could call this one of my stock photos. I failed to get any meat lasagna photos, so I snagged this from an earlier edition. Still looks tasty to me. |
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