Well, not quite. I could have made the pasta from scratch, for instance, but I didn’t. I could have grown the spinach and tomatoes from scratch, or at least, made my own sauce, but I didn’t. Maybe this summer – it sounds like a great challenge.
As it was, this was just plain BEAUTIFUL lasagna. With homemade mozzarella – tasty, though not mind-blowing. It grated pretty nicely, though it was softer and stickier than regular block mozzarella. I froze it for a bit and it grated slightly better, though still on the mushy side. One pound of cheese was the batch I made on Sunday, and another pound was fresh today. I think we used about 1/4 of the new pound, leaving 3/4 of a pound still in the fridge. Yummy! And it’s getting easier and easier to get the cheese just right… patience seems to be the key. Here’s a tutorial that is VERY explicit, step-by-step, and helpful with the handholding I need as a beginner!
(I’m tagging this post “crafts”, because why CAN’T cheesemaking be a craft???)
The ricotta is also homemade. I used the rest of the “Nozzarella” from Sunday, a failed mozzarella which over the last 2 days had hardened into a rich, creamy, delicious cheese somewhere halfway between mozzarella and mascarpone. I almost couldn’t stop eating it to toss it in the blender with some steamed spinach… but eventually, I did and the result, combined with a bit of salt plus the whey ricotta from Sunday and today (I was patient with boiling and cooling the whey and got a TON of ricotta today!), was utterly heavenly.
The third picture shows them all going together in the pan:
Oh, did I mention fresh all-sourdough rye bread courtesy of Breadtopia???
Mmm… what a feast to get us through a chilly(ish) winter evening! The motivation for this was that I promised to bring lasagna to a friend who had a baby last week… I love bringing lasagna because I always do two, it takes almost zero extra effort, and we get to EAT lasagna, which is really my favourite part.
Perhaps this will lift me out of the supper-making doldrums I’ve been in lately…?
I had a feeling we were eating some of your cheese! It really was delicious. And, we devoured that bread in two seconds. Bread that tastes like butter... yum. I really need to learn how to make that.
ReplyDeletePAREVE bread that is creamy and buttery... ah, the wonder that is sourdough!
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I'm not fishing for compliments. Just trying to one-up another blogging mama I know. ;-)))