January 1, 2022
One thing I hope to do with this blog is to inspire others to use the leftovers they have on hand in new ways, so less food goes to waste. Especially when it comes to the nourishmentanimals provide for us. There is more awareness about using the whole animal than in recent years, although our ancestors knew this was both humane and economical. But also, there is so much waste from leftovers, and maybe because of the way I was raised, it just makes me cringe...again especially when it comes to animals. So, it's important to me that we use what we have...and that I continue to think of ways to be creative with leftovers so my family is more apt to enjoy them!
On hand, that I need to use:
Cooked Lamb (from dinner two nights ago)
Winter Squash (from my mom's garden, The Rooted Vine)
Homemade mozzarella, and some whey
Parmesan cheese
Milk
Tomato "juice" (extra from salsa I. made yesterday)
Slow-cooked veggie ragu (from my freezer)
With the above in mind, I created this recipe (as I went):
Lamb & Winter Squash Lasagne
Feeds 6
Ingredients
2 cups chopped cooked lamb meat (mine was from a leg roast and cooked med-rare )
2 cups homemade veggie pasta sauce (my sauce is fairly chunky and was previously sauteed in some EVOO, using onions, garlic, celery, tomatoes, leeks, zucchini, tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, kosher salt, & pepper. It was then simmered for 3 hours with some beef bones in red wine...beef bones later removed. I froze what we didn't use at the time.)
1 cup organic whole-wheat flour
1 cup unbleached organic white flour
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup whey (liquid from mozzarella cheese)
1 large ball mozzarella
2 cups shredded parmesan
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
Process
Measure out the 2 cups of flour, and crack the eggs and yolks into the middle of the flour. Stir with a fork, slowly incorporating all the flour. Knead until dough is a uniform texture and color. Wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for 30mn.
Thaw your veggie pasta sauce, or make fresh. Mix with finely chopped cooked lamb meat. Let this mixture come to room temperature while you make the bechemel and pasta.
Peel and cut up some winter squash into small 1/2" dice. You should have about 4 cups. Add to a little boiling salted water. Turn to simmer until it becomes tender.
As the squash is simmering, start your bechemel base. Melt the 2 tbsp butter, then stit in 2 tbsp of flour. Cook over medium heat until it bubbles, dies down and begins to brown. Slowly pour in the milk, and whisk continuously. Add about 1/4 cup of whey as well, if you have some...but you don't absolutely need it. I like the salty and slightly acidic addition it brings to the bechemel, but this is personal taste. Your bechemel sauce will begin to thicken as it heats. When it's the consistency of a thick gravy, turn the heat off and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Drain your squash leaving just a little of the water, and then using a potato masher squash your squash. :-) Let it simmer a bit more until there's no more water. Add the bechemel to the squash, stir well, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Either roll out flat sheets of pasta from your dough, or run it through a pasta machine. I start at a #1setting and only go the #4 setting. Flour your pasta sheets and set aside.
Shred or finely chop your maozzarella and shred your parmesan. I keep them separate, usually. on sheets of wax paper, because the mozzarella is very wet and the parmesan is not.
Next, assemble your lasagne: place about 1/4 cup meat mixture on the bottom of an 8" by 10" casserole dish. Next add a layer of pasta, overlapping the sheets a bit, and cutting the ends off as needed, using kitchen shears. Place about 1/2 cup meat mixture on top of first layer of pasta sheets. Then about 3/4 cup of the squash-bechemel, then grab about 1/4of the cheese from each pile,and sprinkle on top of the squash-bechemel. Repeat 2 more times...pasta, meat, bechemel, cheese. Then the final layer will not have meat...just pasta, bechemel and cheese on top.
Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven, for 50 minutes, or until it's heated through and cheese on top is golden brown. Let rest 15mn before serving.
Serve with some roasted asparagus with a drizzle of EVOO andpomegranate molasses, or a light and leafy green salad. Also, while the lasagne is resting, I set some sourdough slices directly on the racks in the oven until they're slighlty toasted. Take them out and rub a garlic clove across each. I don't butter them because we use them to soak up the extra ragu from our plates. :-)
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