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
This was a fun Daring Bakers‘ challenge. I’ve never made pasta before and don’t own a pasta roller. I debated about buying one, but decided against it. Because I rolled and stretched the dough by hand, I decided to mix and knead using my stand mixer. Hey, I’m lazy! I had to add an extra egg to make the dough moist enough, but other than that kneading it was a breeze.
I made half the dough into short lasagne to fit my short baking pan. I made the other half into tagliatelle (or is it pappardelle?) because I wanted to roll it up and slice it and pick it up with my fingers like I’ve seen so many TV chefs do (I’m picturing Jaime Oliver here, yum).
I hung the pasta up to dry using chopsticks and my fruit basket. My husband walked into the kitchen and got scared for a bit. He thought I was going crazy and setting something up like a weird horror-movie Children of the Corn type sculpture. After I explained what I was doing he calmed down.
I made the béchemel sauce as directed. Instead of the meat ragu, I made Salsa di Pomodoro Invernale the vegetarian Winter Tomato Sauce from The Splendid Table to which I added a package of Trader Joe’s dried wild mushroom mix. What was great about this is that I was able to spread out the making of all the parts over a few days so assembling and baking the lasagne was a breeze.
The lasagne baked beautifully and the béchemel sauce smelled wonderful with a hint of nutmeg. Individually, all the components were tasty. We’re having it for dinner tonight. I can’t wait!
Pink Stripes 