a simple lasagna

I was watching a food show on Netflix recently that featured David Chang.  Ugly Delicious.  On the show, he went to his friends home and ate with the family.  Now, his friend is considered one of the best chefs in the world.  But this chef.  He does not cook at home.  His wife does.  Nadine Redzepi.  And she wrote a cookbook that I checked out from the library.  It is called Downtime and I really enjoyed it.  This is one that I think I might wish to own because there are a dozen recipes that I wish to try there.  And I have to use interlibrary loan to get it.  If I got it from my local library system, maybe that would be a different story.

When I was reading her header on the lasagna recipe it spoke to me.  I have always felt that lasagna was a lot of work.  And I am not going to say this one is not.  But most lasagna is a lot of work with a lot of grocery money in it.  Her recipe cut the cheese way back and I thought that was interesting, so I gave it a try.  The work is worth it.

I do not really have a recipe for all of this.  The only part of her recipe I did use was the bechamel sauce but it is a basic bechamel.  But I used the ideas.  A red sauce that had flavor with beef in it and 56 ounces of my favorite canned tomatoes.  I did try make the sweet Italian sausage meatballs like she tried but next time I will just brown it with the beef or other ground meat I use in the red sauce.  The meatballs were too fussy.

I made my own pasta sheets because I already had the dough in the refrigerator.  But I did not cook them because there was enough sauce in the dish to cook the pasta as it baked.  Two cups of grated parmesan.

Layer the sauce, then pasta, then sauce, then cheese, until everything is in the pan with sauce and cheese on top.  Bake it for 50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and let rest for 20 minutes.  The rest makes the lasagna hold together better and makes it even tastier.

For how simple the ingredients are, I would make this again.  It still needs a tweak.  It is much lighter then most American lasagna which I really like.  It could be made even easier with no-boil pasta sheets but I just had the pasta dough.  The top picture is a reheated dish of this lasagna.  The boyos are getting leftovers for lunch and are happy.

basic bechamel sauce

Note:  to make gluten free, you can use sorghum or amaranth or potato flour.  I find they all work.

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup flour

4 cups milk

salt to taste

Melt the butter over a medium low heat.  When melted, slowly whisk in the flour.  Let cook until a paste and does not taste like raw flour.  Let it bubble a bit.  Do not let it brown.  This is a blonde roux.  Slowly whisk in the milk.  Let cook over low heat for until it thickens a bit but be careful not to let it stick to the pan.  It will try to and it will brown or burn if you are not careful.  You want slightly thick and smooth.  Add a bit of salt to taste.  Some people also add a touch of nutmeg which I am not a fan of.

If you use something other then butter, like sausage grease, this is sausage gravy.  It all works the same.  The roux can also become the black roux for gumbo.  Also, know as Cajun napalm.  What I am trying to tell you is becareful of the bubbles in the roux.  If they splatter and get your skin, they will burn.