recipe 19 lasagna

I recently mentioned that dear family and I just traveled to Italy. I now understand why people are transfixed with Italy. I feel that my taste buds are labeled before Italy, during Italy and after Italy. To be perfectly honest the during Italy is my favorite. Our trip was a world wind tour of the Italian Alps. We skied, ate, drank, skied, ate, slept, marveled at the fairytale setting that we were so lucky to be experiencing, and ate some more.  I recently read a New York Times article that discussed why food in Italy taste so differently than Italian food prepared in the US. The theory is that all the local proprietors that would supply ingredients to restaurants and markets are just that....local. So the cheese is from the cows a kilometer away. The eggs for the pasta are from the farm 2 kilometers the other direction. The veal. pork. beef are from another nearby merchant...the tomatoes and herbs are...you get the idea. It makes good sense to me. I know the best produce I can get outside of my backyard is from my local farm. So, in turn great local ingredients produce great food. Once preservatives and additives are thrown in the mix quality suffers, as do our taste buds, sadly.
The first day on the slopes we skied into a small cafe in the middle of nowhere. We were all so excited to experience our first real meal (night one was very good pizza). All of our meals were wonderful, but dear daughter ordered the best, lasagna. It didn't have the traditional cheese inside but a bechamel sauce instead. It made it light, airy, and almost cloud like. Oh and did I mention the bolognese sauce.
 

Here's the recipe from:

While the sauce was cooking for hours

I cooked the noodles and made the bechamel sauce. I made a classic version...feel free to use your favorite or simply google for a sauce that suits you....not too buttery, not too floury etc... Mark Bittman's is great.

I started with a layer of sauce, added noodles, bechamel, sauce, noodles,bechamel, sauce, noodles, until my pan was full. A little fresh mozzarella rounded everything off on top.

We added a green salad, bread and of course vin rosa. Buon appetito.

 

blog continued recipe 18...kale

So I've been thinking about kale lately. I know, I know "very exciting life" you may be thinking. Actually I just spent an unbelievable week in Italy. The food was amazing. I have been itching to make a few yummy based on the trip...polenta, various pizzas, veal dishes, crepes, and I am curious about a homemade Nutella.....hmmmmm getting hungry just thinking about the possibilities. Anyway I digress...today I am focused on kale. I know there are the fancy purple and black kales, which have eluded me at my markets, I'm talking your basic green kale. I threw caution to the wind and threw together my own recipe, (so no cook book attached to this blog).
I love collard greens and broccoli rabe. I feel their flavors improve with pork....(try broccoli rabe with chorizo, you won't be disappointed), so I had some ham and chopped it up, and went from there.



chop 1 cup or so pork leftovers. 

put 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup olives, anchovy (1 or 2)
crushed red pepper to taste, and lemon juice.

add mixture to coated pan and saute until browning.

rinse kale, add to pan and cook, cook, cook. 

 

                                          Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with grated cheese.
                                                                           Enjoy!

Very Good Recipes http://verygoodrecipes.com/breakfasts-of-the-world-challenge breakfast challenge

     Very Good Recipes http://verygoodrecipes.com/breakfasts-of-the-world-challenge is holding a breakfast around the world challenge. That alone is exciting, but being a judge is thrilling for me! I have been perusing the recipes and they look and sound amazing. I am dedicating time this coming weekend to preparing some of the recipes. One of the nice aspects of the challenge is the fact that it is a global call to breakfast. It's interesting and something I've never thought of before, but I could conjure up a dinner from Finland, France, and Florida, but would be hard pressed to think of breakfast from Iceland, Iran or Iberia. Thanks to Stephane Gigandet and Very Good Recipes we will be introduced to wonderful foods and ideas.
     As a judge I also am required to submit a recipe ( not for judgement). I thought long and hard, made a few flops, looked around for something eggy/omelety and came up with spinach souffle. Well Julia Child came up with the recipe actually, I am just reaffirming its yumminess. I was also thinking about a time-versatile recipe....think breakfast for dinner. Feel free to play around with omelet type ingredients...sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms, ham, varied cheeses....
   BTW....dear family loved it...no leftovers!

SOUFFLE AUX EPINARDS
from Julia Child's, Mastering the Art of French Cooking:

Ingredients:
6cup souffle mold
enameled saucepan
1 tb minced shallots or green onion
1/4 cup blanched chopped spinach (or chopped frozen-which will take several minutes more cooking)
1/4 tsp salt
SOUFFLE BASE (see below)
5 egg whites pinch of salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese ( I used a combo of Gruyere, cheddar, Swiss...actually whatever I had on hand)

SOUFFLE BASE:
 3 TB butter
2 1/2 quart saucepan
wooden spatula or spoon
1 cup boiling milk
wire whisk
1/2 tsp salt
1/8tsp pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
4 egg yolks....
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour with wooden spatula or spoon and cook over medium heat until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without browning. remove from heat; when mixture has stopped bubbling, pour in all the boiling milk at once. Beat vigorously with a wire whip until blended. Blend in the seasonings. Return over modestly high heat and boil, stirring with the wire whip, for 1 minute. Sauce will be very thick. Remove from heat. Immediately start to separate the eggs. Drop the whites into egg white bowl, and the yolk in the center of the hot sauce. Beat the yolk into the sauce with wire whip. Continue in the same manner with the rest of the eggs. Correct seasonings.

For Spinach Souffle:

                Butter the mold and sprinkle with cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Measure ingredients.

                          

                             Cook shallots ( I used regular onions) for a moment in the butter.

                    Add spinach and salt, and stir over moderately high heat for several minutes to evaporate as much moisture from the spinach as possible. Remove from heat.

Prepare the souffle base.

 

stir in the spinach. Correct seasonings.

Beat in egg whites and salt until stiff.

Stir in all but one fourth of them into sauce. Stir in all but a tablespoon of the cheese.

Fold in the rest of the egg whites.

and turn mixture

into prepared mold. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and set on a rack in the middle of preheated oven. Turn heat sown to 375 and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

YUM!

Breakfast from my part of the world.