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

[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. :-)