Eric’s Staff Lasagna
Courtesy of a Michelin Star Kitchen
Time: 6 Hours 25 min
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 2/5
Lasagna is a great way to feed a crowd. Will I be feeding a crowd with this lasagna? No, but I will have enough to eat for at least a week. That’s just economical. Everyone has a different approach to lasagna, so I’m curious what a Michelin starred approach from The French Laundry Cookbook looks like. Does it impress? In this recipe, I decide to make the pasta from scratch using a Bob’s Red Mill recipe.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
Eric’s Staff Lasagna Ingredients
Keeping it Simple
Bob’S Red Mill Basic Pasta
Even Simpler
The ingredients in this recipe are very simple and readily available. You have the option to use oregano or basil in the sauce. I opted to use basil. I went above and beyond by making lasagna noodles from scratch instead of using store bought noodles. This might actually save you tome time depending on how long it takes you to boil water (if using dried noodles).
Tools:
Sharp Knife
13x9 baking dish
Whisk
Large Pot
Cooking Review:
Prep: 50 minutes
The prep for this recipe includes chopping the basil, parsley, garlic, and onions. I also had to peel and chop the tomatoes, which required blanching them first. The recipe doesn’t give any tips for peeling the tomatoes, which is why I will add a point for difficulty. If you don’t have any clue, this could be a big pain. To blanch the tomatoes, score the bottom of the tomatoes while water comes to a boil. Have a bowl of ice water ready and put the tomatoes, a few at a time into the water for about 30 seconds. Transfer the tomatoes to the ice water and let them cool. Dry them off and the skin should be easy to peel off.
Make Sauce (stove): 24 minutes
I added the olive oil to a large pot and let it heat up before adding the onion and garlic. I let it cook for about 4 minutes to become translucent before adding the tomato paste and cooking for about 10 minutes. Be sure to stir this frequently to avoid sticking and burning. The chopped tomatoes were added next and stirred in. Since I decided to go with the oven method instead of the stove method (so I won’t have to babysit the pot), I made a parchment paper lid, covered the sauce, and put it in the oven.
Baking Sauce: 3 Hours 30 minutes
I let the sauce reduce in the oven for about an hour and a half. While it was in the oven, I made the ricotta mixture by whisking the eggs with the ricotta and seasoning it with parsley, salt, and pepper. I also chopped the mozzarella. I accidentally got sliced mozzarella, so I couldn’t easily grate it.
Cool Sauce & Make Pasta: 1 Hour
After taking the sauce out of the oven, I mixed in the basil and let it cool. In the mean time, I mixed the salt and semolina flour on a clean work surface. I beat the eggs and added the water and olive oil. I made a well in the flour mixture and poured in the egg mixture. I used a bench scraper to bring the dough together before kneading until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. I wrapped the dough in a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes before rolling it out and cutting it into sheets.
Assembly: 12 minutes
To assemble the lasagna, I started with about a cup of the sauce on the bottom of the baking dish followed by a layer of pasta. The pasta was topped with half of the ricotta mixture, then another layer of pasta. A cup of sauce was reserved and the rest of the sauce was poured on the previous layer followed by another pasta layer. The rest of the ricotta was spread on top, the last layer of noodles was placed, followed by the reserved cup of sauce and then the mozzarella, which had been seasoned with salt and pepper. As you can see, I didn’t have quite enough pasta to have a full final layer of pasta. Maybe if I rolled it out thinner and in a more rectangular shape, I could have had a fuller final layer.
Bake & Finish: 1 hour
I baked the lasagna for 50 minutes. I wanted more color on the top, so I ended up broiling the lasagna on low for 3-4 minutes. Finally, I let the lasagna cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Analysis:
This is a pretty good lasagna. The sauce has a very nice flavor and is surprisingly sweet, as there was no salt or sugar added to it. I really enjoyed the fresh noodles. They have a much more prominent and fresh flavor than what I had been used to and also have a nice bite to them. I’m glad I made the pasta from scratch. The ricotta kind of fell into the background, adding more of a creamy texture than flavor. The mozzarella on top was nice, adding some chew and surprising amount of flavor, probably thanks to the seasoning. Overall, I do really like this lasagna, but it’s not blowing me away. I’m giving it an 8/10. It takes a really long time to make, and I’d expect a little more if I were to wait that long. Also, I think it loses some for not giving any guidance on peeling the tomatoes. If you do decide to take this on, I think you’ll like it.
