Lasagna

I believe that I posted my recipe for veal lasagna before, but tonight I did a variation on it that was interesting, but not entirely to my liking.

The lasagna is built on a base of ground veal, browned in butter with a hint of garlic, then cooked with marsala, goose stock (or brown chicken stock) and cream, with grated nutmeg and fresh cracked pepper. To this I add a generous amount of strained ricotta.

The other layer is short braised greens, which I described below. Normally I prefer mustard or collard greens, but all I could get was chard. It worked OK, but I missed the spiciness of the other greens.

Then I use a mixture of melting cheese (gruyere, emmental, fontina, mozzarella or a combination of them) and reggiano parmeggiano.

For the pasta, I use fresh sheets, so I don't have to boil them. In layering I start with the meat mixture (in a buttered dish), then greens, then cheese, then fresh cracked pepper and a drizzling of cream (creme fraiche is better), then a layer of pasta. The top layer should be cheese, because it browns nicely.

The lasagna was good, but would have been better with creme fraiche and spicier greens. I served it with a salad of heart of romaine, braised bosc pairs, blue gouda, and toasted walnuts. For dressing I made a standard vinegar/mustard/olive oil dressing, but added the boiled down braising liquid from the pairs. I highly recommend this salad for winter evenings.

I served all of this with Est! Est! Est! white wine.