Sunday, March 29, 2009

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.

7 comments:

  1. Great job! Did you let it cool completely before taking your sliced pic? I never have the patience to let it cool enough and mine always slide all over the place.

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  2. Your lasagne looks great. I loved making the pasta and all the components. I'm definitely making pasta again. So worth it.

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  3. Thank you Me! and pinkstripes. Yes, I did let it cool. I made it in the middle of the night, so I didn't serve it until the next evening.

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  4. Ooh your lasagna looks great! I'm sure the chunky-veg marinara was yummy. I added tomato paste and extra tomatoes to mine to make it slightly more like what I expect from traditional lasagna. Good job!

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  5. That looks delicious. This was a fun challenge. I had never made my own pasta before, but I will do it again. Great job on yours.

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  6. You did a wonderful job on your lasagne!

    Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go

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  7. Thank you TeaLady, Karen and Sheltie Girl!

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