Happy Easter! I really love flowers so on my last grocery store run, I found a colorful bunch which included my favorite, sunflowers. This morning, I was reading in the NY Times about how the tulip farmers in The Netherlands have had to dump most of their flowers as they have no buyers at the auctions. I remembered a short weekend trip to the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens and it was truly a magnificent experience. So serene, so beautiful...so I wanted to share a bit of that glory with you today - Happy Easter. But I warn you, you may get a bit teary.
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen these days cooking. It is my restorative practice. We had not had lasagne in a very long time. I knew that Jamie and Cate would be out yesterday afternoon so it would be the perfect time to put some music on (Spotify - Marty Stuart), grab a glass of wine and concentrate on a time consuming Bolognese sauce. The nice thing about this sauce is that it is made with pantry staples so no extra trip to the grocery store. It takes about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish but most of that time is cooking time. So you can get the sauce going, then take your wine over to the TV and watch a few episodes of your favorite Netflix series. I highly recommend this recipe when you know you will have a few hours to yourself.
As a kid, I always thought that lasagne had to have a layer of ricotto cheese. It was my least favorite part of the dish. Many years ago, Jamie came across a recipe that replaced the ricotta layer with a layer of bechamel. That is now our standard - so creamy and delicious.
Have you ever been to the Serious Eats website? If you haven't then go to it today. I used their Lasagne alla Bolognese recipe yesterday for the first time and it is a keeper. You may be surprised that it calls for no Mozzarella. Don't worry - you will not miss it.
For the Bolognese, I used this recipe:
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/12/basic-ragu-bolognese-recipe.html
What I changed: The Bolognese recipe called for unflavored gelatin to be added to chicken stock. As I had made chicken stock the previous day and mine was already gelatinous, I did not add any. I also halved the recipe as I was only making lasagne for three people.
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