lasagna

Charlie got a new Italian cookbook the other day, and has been reading it and picking out things to make. Last night we decided on lasagna. He's been perfecting a bolognese sauce over the past few months, and this cookbook had a completely different technique than he had been using. Italian sauce without garlic or basil? Bizarre! It worked marvelously though. Four hours of gentle simmering (courtesy of a new diffuser that worked like a charm) and the taste went through several different stages.

I made the noodles, following what sounded like insanely overcomplicated directions. Simple flour-and-egg pasta dough, rolled out to the ultimate thin setting. So sheer that they looked like women's stockings. The entire counter was covered with dishtowels, because each piece had to be laid out and not touch anything else or else it stuck like glue. Once they were all rolled out, I trimmed them to pan-length and dropped five noodles at a time into boiling water. After 20 seconds, they were scooped out and put into a bowl of cold water. Then over to the kitchen sink, and rinsing each noodle under cold running water to get the starch off. For being so thin they were surprisingly sturdy and I really could scrub them "like delicate laundry" as the directions said. Then each noodle was laid out flat again on a dry towel and patted dry on both sides.

While Ido was helping me out with the noodle hoopla, Charlie made bechamel. Then the two guys assembled the seven layer lasagne while I got to play with baby Maya. Even after all of those layers, the final product was maybe three inches high. So delicate! So incredibly tasty. I kept trying to deny it, but it really was worth the five hours it took to prepare it.