The Daring Bakers - Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

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.

I was so excited when I found out that this month's Daring Baker's challenge was lasagna, with homemade pasta. I've made pasta before, but never spinach pasta. This was such a fun dish to make-not the "traditional" lasagna with tons of ricotta and mozzarella, but instead with minimal cheese, and two sauces.

Here are the components of the lasagna: Spinach pasta sheets, a white sauce, a red sauce filled with vegetables, and some freshly grated Parmigiana-Reggiano. After one bite, Dave declared that this was the best lasagna he's ever eaten, and Dave has eaten many lasagnas. It's really that good. It's a bit time consuming to make, but it's not difficult. You can find all the details and the recipe here. http://beansandcaviar.blogspot.com/2009/03/lasagne-of-emilia-romagna.html

The only substitution I made to the pasta recipe was to add two extra eggs as I use organic, free-range eggs and they are not the extra-large size called for in the recipe. Being a vegetarian, I did not make the traditional meat sauce, but a thick sauce full of chunky veggies. I made my basic marinara sauce, but I did not roast or puree the vegetables. I used carrots, zucchini, and mushrooms. Here's a link to my marinara recipe. http://www.veggienumnums.com/2009/03/sunday-pasta-dinner-and-festa-italiana.html

This is an absolutely fantastic recipe, and a lot of fun to make! I love the Daring Bakers for giving us such a delicious challenge.