White Lasagna

[plumtreeblossom]

Last night I made my first white lasagna. I'd been trying to come up with some hearty pasta dishes to make for beowabbit, who Does Not Do Tomatoes. I'd never seen an alfredo-based lasagna and basically came up with the concept on my own, though investigation proved that it's actually an existing and well-loved dish.

Far be it from me to actually use a recipe -- I made it with lasagna noodles, alfredo-pesto sauce, ricotta, parm, mozz, mushrooms, sauteed onions and red bell peppers, and crumbled sweet Italian sausage.

Pretty good for a freshman effort, but for future tweaking, it needs more cowbell. It's a good mild base, but could be improved by the addition of:

More garlic
White pepper (I didn't have any)
Artichoke hearts
Olives
Maybe spinach
Maybe asparagus tips

Folks over at food_porn encouraged eggplant, but I'm not a fan and I don't think he is either. I think I would swap out the sweet Italian sausage for seasoned ground beef, but I'm not sure what seasonings.

I love cooking for my sweetiedarling. If I make this again (perhaps for a pot luck?) maybe I'll have the Wabbit help so he can learn lasagna architecture. It's a fun dish to build, such that when you're done, you have the uncontainable urge to stretch out your arms and sing "TA DA!" even if you're all by yourself.

Comments

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

That sounds great....any chance you could write down more details on what you did?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Well, for this I actually bought the alfredo sauce and pesto pre-made (ducks and hides from Teh Foodies) and mixed them together at 3 parts alfredo to 1 part pesto. But both can be made from scratch if you have the time. I also used boxed pasta, which I boiled first to al dente.

While the pasta was cooking, I crumbled up the sausage (not easy -- sausage doesn't like to crumble like beef does). I cooked that up in a frying pan, adding the sliced onions and peppers once the meat was partially cooked. I drained that on a paper-towel-covered plate and let it cool a bit, them drained the pasta.

I laid down a layer of pasta on the oil-coated bottom of the pan. I spread that with sauce and sausage/onion/peppers. Another layer of pasta, spread with sauce and ricotta and mushrooms. I repeted the alternating layers until the pan was full (6 layers, I think.) Then I covered the whole top with mozzarella. I tent-wrapped it in foil so the foil wasn't touching the mozz, and sealed the foil around the edges. This went in the frige overnight. Before dinner the next day, I popped in the over at 350 degrees for about an hour. All in all it was very improvised.

This came out blander than I would have wanted, so I would recommend jazzing it up a bit more with whatever veggies you like and definitely more garlic and pepper.

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Lasagna is not something I have experimented with, but enjoy very much and this white one would be even more my thing.

I eat the tomato sauces, but they are not my favorite.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

To fight the bland you might try putting in some red pepper flakes.

Also, spinach is quite lovely.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of roasting portobellos for something like this - sliced, hit with a good olive oil and sea salt, and roasted until they've given up their moisture. Roasting the peppers will do good things, too.

Another thing that can really improve a lasagna is mixing up the cheese a bit. Never lose the parmesan, but consider a good fontina or pecorino for that extra bit of flavor. I tend not to like ricotta in white lasagna because I don't think it brings enough to the table when it's not there as a balance to the acidity of a tomato sauce.

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of roasting portobellos for something like this - sliced, hit with a good olive oil and sea salt, and roasted until they've given up their moisture.

Is it lunch time yet? That sounds like a fantastic addition and I didn't even taste the original.

[komos.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of roasting veggies and shrooms, and just trying different treatments in general. ^^

[komos.livejournal.com]

And I seem to be repeating myself. Nothing to see here... move along.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Pecorino, yes, that would have been excellent.

I felt the same way about the ricotta -- that it didn't bring much to the table -- but at the same time I can't bear parting with it because it's my favorite part of lasagna. I wonder if I could jazz it up with something mixed in. But I don't know what.

[komos.livejournal.com]

If you're insistent upon it, you could hydrate some dried wild mushrooms, macerate them, and then blend the resulting paste into the ricotta. This will give the layer more interest, though it will affect the color somewhat.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Good call, and I love dried wild mushrooms. I had to look up the term "macerate." (having made an instant association with the word "masticate," which wouldn't do as a cooking technique, at least in this culture). Hmm, wonder what to macerate in?

[komos.livejournal.com]

Forgot a step, too... they'll need to be chopped at some point if you'll be blending them. ^^

[komos.livejournal.com]

Moscato D'Asti?

[mindflankr.livejournal.com]

I would definitely add the spinach to your ricotta (if you also add one egg, it will give the ricotta a nice texture).

More cow bell sounds like you might need a bit of acidity to balance out the creaminess of your dish. Here are two suggestions for that.....

1- When caramelizing your onions or garlic or whatever veggies you are adding, add a healthy splash of something acidic (like lemon or vinegar)

2- This is a trick I use whenever preparing any sort of pasta with a cream sauce. After cooking the pasta, toss it with a bit of simple vinaigrette. This will help your pasta from sticking together and give it the zing that is sometimes missing with a cream sauce.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yes, it definitely needed so acidity to balance the creaminess. I love the idea of mixing the spinach with the lasagna. Do you cook the spinach first before mixing it in?

Vinagarette is a good idea too. And I will never let my house be without white pepper again! :-)

[sideshowbennie.livejournal.com]

I would use frozen spinach, thawed then drained and pressed so all the moisture is out and chopped finely. It would eliminate the need to cook it.

Also, if you are feeling adventurous, and you like it, grill and the finely chop some fennel bulbs and add it in a very thin layer. You could possibly even combine it in the layer with the meat which may be the best option if you decide to use it. It would give it a zing.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I can't recall if I've ever eaten fennel... is it from the onion family?

[sideshowbennie.livejournal.com]

I am not sure which family it comes from. It has an anise/liquorice flavor that gets a bit milder when they are grilled.

When I make regular, tomatoe based lasagna, I always sprinkle some fennel seeds over the top layer of cheese so they bake and brown with the cheese. Delicious

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, really hate fennel. (Although I like anise, go figure. Perhaps it's that whole licorice with meat thing that gets me down.)

Try the fennell before using it in a recipe, just in case....

[sideshowbennie.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally agree with you on that. If you have never tried it, definitely give it a taste before you screw up a recipe by finding out, after the fact, that you hate it.

I love it but it is definitely an acquired taste...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I used to take fennel as a medicinal herb and drink a tea made of powdered fennel. It did indeed have an anise flavor. I've had it minced finely on salad, too. I like the idea of the seeds on the cheese. Wabbit loves licorice flavored things, too. :-)

[beowabbit]

Wabbit loves licorice flavored things, too. :-)

I was just about to comment to say how much I love anise and fennel, but I see I don’t need to. :-)

[komos.livejournal.com]

Your kung fu is strong.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

And I love your little ideas! You're a true kitchen goddess. :-)

[beowabbit]

It was yummy, and I just had leftovers for lunch! (To my surprise, I was able to eat everything we packed for me.)

I vote for any of the possible additions you mention except for spinach. (I don't much like cooked spinach, although it’s nowhere near the tomato category of munition.)

*Kisses you.*

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Good to know about the spinach, my love. We'll leave that out of our of future creations. And I'm not surprised you were able to eat all that we packed. :-) Smooch.

Off-topic -- do you like chicken & noodle casserole?

*snuzzle kiss snuzzle*

[beowabbit]

do you like chicken & noodle casserole?

I’m sure I would, but I don’t think I’ve ever had it. (I’ve had and liked lots of tuna-noodle casserole. I should learn to make that.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yum, tuna casserole is delicious and really easy. I'll show you how. :-)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Oh my. Reading this got my mouth watering...