Whew!
I'll have to admit that while I have enjoyed making a dish and having it sustain me for days on end, basically taking the guesswork out of "what should I eat" it does begin to weigh a bit on your spirit after you have eaten the same lunch/dinner/or both after more than a few days. My wise mother suggests I make a bunch of dishes and freeze parts of them so I can add a little variety to my life. She has a valid point (don't you hate it when she does that?) but I am just not quite there yet when it comes to my planning and organization. So until that day comes, monotony will be my guide. Ima tellin' you though, this following dish was a fun one to chew on each passing day.
Free Form Sausage and Three Cheese Lasagne: Followed pretty much by rote from Food and Wine Magazine (January 2010)
You can tell it's winter and our household is craving stick-to-your-ribs-and-warm-you-from-the-inside dishes. First Chili and now this. However it makes sense to crave hearty dishes this time of year. Still, even I surprised myself when I found myself turning back to page 60 and slightly drooling over a lasagne dish. I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a lasagne, as I have never been a huge fan of the family style classic. In the past I have found so many of them to be laden with ill-flavored meat, buried in tomato sauce, with rubbery cheese (usually a chalky textured ricotta) and heavy noodles. All converging together to create a mass that doesn't impart any individual or distinct flavors, and promptly rests itself in the pit of your stomach and overstays it's welcome. I'll say it here first: I haven't been the biggest supporter of lasagne. Until now.
Not only did this dish pique my interest because it seemed to fit my mission of finding dishes which are affordable and lasting, but the individual components of the dish intrigued me. I am sucker for the term "three cheese"-kill me now, along with the fresh basil and the subtle sweetness of an Italian sausage. It was definitely a reason to jump back on the lasagne bandwagon.
Honestly, I think I could be so bold as to write "this is the best lasagne I have ever eaten." I know, quite a big statement from this little blog, but I stand behind it (and I think Jürgen would agree). The fantastic thing about this dish is while it is filling, and certainly hearty, it's also quite light. I ate it while on a break at work many times and never returned feeling weighed down and semi-comatose. After all, when you are dealing with persnickity Upper East Side housewives, you need all the energy you can get. Also, this is the first lasagne I have had the pleasure of tasting where each individual flavor was able to shine through while complementing the others. The use of the whole tomatoes created a fabulous caramelized oven roasted tomato flavor, the sausage was sweet and crumbly, and the cheese rounded out the dish with the fontina being the real winner. It brought an unexpected creaminess along with a pinch of tartness to keep your tastebuds excited. All in all, it was good enough to make a lasagne convert out of me. Never say never my friends.
When you first take the dish out of the oven it needs to rest for ten minutes, however if you eat it the night of its going to seem a bit "soupy" but do not let that worry you. All this means is you have an incredibly delicious tomatoy juice to sop (or in my case slup) up after you are done. Trust me on this one.
The entire recipe can be found here, but again here is a breakdown of the ingredients (with a few substitution suggestions) and the total cost:
1/2 lb of lasagna noodles (we got two boxes for $3.00)
3 Tbls of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus more for tossing (had)
1/2 lb of Sweet Italian Sausage* (bought a package of 6 links, totaling 1lb for $3.29)
1 cup water (had)
4 large garlic gloves, thinly sliced (had)
One 28-Ounce can of Whole tomatoes, chopped and juices reserved ($1.99-we used Hunts)
Salt and Pepper (had)
Freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese (we always have a block on hand, but it usually runs between $7-$8 and lasts at least a month...make it a staple in your house, I'm telling ya!)
1/2 lb Fresh Mozzarella, cut into 8 pieces ($8.15)
6 Ounces Italian Fontina**, cut into 8 pieces ($4.99)
2 Tbls unsalted butter, softened (had)
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil leaves ($3.49 for a package)
*For those of you who don't eat pork or perhaps any meat products, you could easily substitute turkey/chicken/veggie sausage in it's place.
**If your grocer of choice doesn't carry fontina, Gruyere, Emmental or Gouda came up as similar alternatives. But do everything you can to find the fontina, it's worth it.
We made this dish on a Tuesday night and it fed us (primarily me) through Sunday.
Total Cost: $32.41 which breaks down to about $5.40 a day.
However-not only did we like this dish SO much, but we only used half of the sausage we purchased, so that Friday night (we had a bit of Lasagne overlap) we made an entire second helping of this yummy treat. The only ingredients we needed to purchase for the second go-round were:
Another ball of mozzarella
A block of fontina
A can of tomatoes
Total: $15.13
With this second serving of lasagne I was able to feed myself for another full week (Jürg got a few digs in, and Neill got a taste as well). This means a grand total of TWELVE days of lasagne bringing the daily total down to $3.96 a day!
Lately with all this talk of snow, I canot think of a more fitting dish for a snowed in evening. We paired it with a viewing of the Disney-Pixar Classic Monsters Inc. on a Friday night, and I am not sure if it was the yummy-ness of the dish, or the sweetness of the movie, but I was definitely left in a puddle of tears by the end of the evening. Fuzzy monsters and cheesy lasagne...they get me every time.
It is also rare for me to get coordinated enough to not only freeze part of a dish, but also remember to bring it out at a later date, so I am always looking for dishes that get better with age! Lasagna is such perfect comfort food. This sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteFrom your wise old mother....Keep on cookin...little chef!!! Ever thought of writing a cookbook???? You truly have a way with words...but I may be a tad biased!!! Love you!!
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