Signature Lasagna Rolls

Everyone has that-one-dish. The dish that elicits reactions like: "Oh my gosh, she's making X for dinner! Yay!" and the dish that makes people take just one more helping. This, my friends, is my signature dish.

Well, to be technical, it's my mom's dish - she gave me the recipe after testing it a few times. Or Giada De Laurentiis' dish - she may have invented this... But with a recipe so handled and stained in olive oil drops from years of heavy use, the lines get kind of blurry...

I even made this dish for a "Heritage Food Night" where everyone was supposed to bring something from our cultural background, or that we grew up eating. Lasagna is Italian...so it works, right? Humor me, but try this dish. It will make you want it to be part of your heritage, too.

This is a spin on traditional lasagna. Lasagna rolls take the messiness out of serving dinner, making cute little packaged lasagna servings. And it's actually kind of fun to make! You just roll up each individual noodle, then bake it all together. A little more work, but really quite cute!

Lasagna Rolls

From Giada De Laurentiis, via my mom :)

Bechamel Sauce:

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tsp flour
• 1 1/4 c. whole milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• pinch ground nutmeg

Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk until bubbly, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and thickens, about 3 minutes. Whisk the salt, pepper and nutmeg into the sauce. Pour it into a 9x13 glass baking dish and set aside.

Lasagna:

• 1 15 oz container of whole milk ricotta cheese (or homemade!)
• 1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 cup (plus extra for topping) grated parmesan cheese
• 3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped (I substituted turkey bacon this time, and it was delicious!)
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 12-15 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 2-3 cups marinara sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 450 deg.

In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, spinach, parmesan, prosciutto (or turkey bacon), egg, salt and pepper.

Boil a large pot of water with 2 tbsp olive oil. Boil the noodles until just tender, but still firm to bite. Drain and arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer.

Spread about 3 tbsp of the ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle. Starting at one end, roll the noodle like a jelly roll. Lay the roll seam-side down in the bechamel sauce in the baking dish. Repeat with all of the noodles, or until the baking dish is full. Spoon 2 cups of marinara sauce over the rolls, then sprinkle with the mozzarella and 2 tbsp (or so) of parmesan cheese. Cover tightly with foil and bake until heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until the cheeses on top become golden, about 15 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes and then serve with additional heated marinara sauce, if desired.

Careful, this might become "your dish" too!

Homemade Ricotta

Whenever it is a slow day at the office, one of my coworkers, Andy, likes to pose questions to our team to break up the afternoon lull. One of his questions a while back was: "If you could read only one magazine for the rest of your life, what would it be?" Without a doubt, mine is Cook's Illustrated. The very magazine that gave us grilled stuffed flank steak, did it again with a seemingly impossible food: homemade ricotta.

Yes, you read that correctly...it IS possible for the home chef to make your own cheese! I couldn't believe it either. The recipe was almost unnoticeable; it took only a tiny corner of a page in the magazine, and was accompanied by the claim that really sold me: "superior to store-bought." Really?! I could make ricotta? And it will be better than something made by people who actually know how to make cheese? I had to try it.


I couldn't believe how impossibly simple the recipe was. There are only 3 ingredients:

1. One gallon of whole milk
2. One tsp. salt
3. 1/3 c. lemon juice

Really. That's it. With three ingredients, you can make about 3.5 cups of ricotta (I didn't measure in the end, but I think it was about the same amount that you get from a 15 oz. container from the store).


Do-It-Yourself Ricotta
From Cook's Illustrated, Sept/Oct 2009

1. Heat the milk and salt over medium-high heat in a dutch oven or other really big pot (we're talking a whole gallon of milk here, people).
2. When the temperature of the milk reaches 185 deg F, remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. (I improvised and used a meat thermometer to check the temperature, but it looked like it was just before boiling, if you don't have a thermometer on hand)
   
3. Allow the liquid to stand undisturbed (seriously, don't touch it!) for about 5-10 minutes. The milk will separate into solid white curds and translucent white whey during this time, though it may be hard to tell from the surface.
4. After the wait, dip a spoon in to see if there are curds. If the milk hasn't separated, stir (gently!!) another tablespoon or so of lemon juice and let sit again.
5. Spoon the curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth and drain, without pressing, overnight in the fridge.

And that's it! Then you have ricotta! Amazing!
The homemade version is great for lasagna (hint hint...post to come), manicotti, cheesecake, etc...


Homemade ricotta may not be photogenic, but it is seriously good.