Daring Bakers, March: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna
For those of you new to the drill, we Daring Bakers are assigned a secret recipe at the beginning of every month. We don't vary from the recipe, except for dietary restrictions. At the end of the month, all on the same day, we post the results of our projects. Now, on to this month's business. The Daring Bakers have had a busy March! First off, we got a new website and new badges. This one is my favorite:
You can check out my updated widget for it. If you click it, it will take you to our new site! Thank you, Lis and Ivonne, and all the talented people whose resources brought these positive changes about!
And now, our challenge!
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
For me, this challenge started with a somewhat daunting pile on my counter. This pile of flour, eggs, and spinach quickly turned into an episode of "When Shaggy Dough Attacks"!
I muscled through and tamed the beast, though.
In the process, my forearms grew about an inch in diameter. Persevere! What a workout! Like magic, I ended up with soft, silky dough. The directions read that this dough will feel alive. It did! I kinda wanted to make out with it. (Just kidding, Hun!)
Then you stretch-pull-press the dough as flat as you can (yes, with a rolling pin if you're like me and don't have a rolling pin). Then cut them into lasagna noodles. The directions read that my noodles should be so thin, I should be able to see colors through the noodles. Well. I guess my noodles were so green, I could see the green clear through on the other side of them. I hung them on a chair covered with a dish towel so they could hang out a bit and dry.
I'll admit that I was worried about this lasagna. I've made pasta from scratch and pasta by hand, but never lasagna noodles. I was planning to serve this to guests, so as backup (read: compensation to my dinner guests) in case this recipe ran amok, I made a version of David Lebovitz's really delicious scotcheroos.
My tip when serving lasagna--don't serve from the corner. Serve from the side. For some reason, they seem to come out more cleanly.
Looked okay . . .
Tasted GREAT! Soft pasta, delicious and deeply flavorful ragu (guess those 2+ hours paid off), and kick-butt bechamel sauce (with Hun's help, since I was too busy boiling and drying off noodles to whisk the pot). All of my dinner guests had three servings each. There's one piece left in the fridge (I call dibs!!! Unless it's already gone. Oh, dismay!).
Check out my fellow DBers by clicking through our Blogroll.
You can check out my updated widget for it. If you click it, it will take you to our new site! Thank you, Lis and Ivonne, and all the talented people whose resources brought these positive changes about!
And now, our challenge!
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
For me, this challenge started with a somewhat daunting pile on my counter. This pile of flour, eggs, and spinach quickly turned into an episode of "When Shaggy Dough Attacks"!
I muscled through and tamed the beast, though.
In the process, my forearms grew about an inch in diameter. Persevere! What a workout! Like magic, I ended up with soft, silky dough. The directions read that this dough will feel alive. It did! I kinda wanted to make out with it. (Just kidding, Hun!)
Then you stretch-pull-press the dough as flat as you can (yes, with a rolling pin if you're like me and don't have a rolling pin). Then cut them into lasagna noodles. The directions read that my noodles should be so thin, I should be able to see colors through the noodles. Well. I guess my noodles were so green, I could see the green clear through on the other side of them. I hung them on a chair covered with a dish towel so they could hang out a bit and dry.
I'll admit that I was worried about this lasagna. I've made pasta from scratch and pasta by hand, but never lasagna noodles. I was planning to serve this to guests, so as backup (read: compensation to my dinner guests) in case this recipe ran amok, I made a version of David Lebovitz's really delicious scotcheroos.
My tip when serving lasagna--don't serve from the corner. Serve from the side. For some reason, they seem to come out more cleanly.
Looked okay . . .
Tasted GREAT! Soft pasta, delicious and deeply flavorful ragu (guess those 2+ hours paid off), and kick-butt bechamel sauce (with Hun's help, since I was too busy boiling and drying off noodles to whisk the pot). All of my dinner guests had three servings each. There's one piece left in the fridge (I call dibs!!! Unless it's already gone. Oh, dismay!).
Check out my fellow DBers by clicking through our Blogroll.
Comments
Nicely done!
Michelle
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/