Simon Says Cheese @ the Kitchen Conservatory March 26, 2008

Shameless plug…I know.  But I don’t care.  Simon will be doing an intro class on cheese at the Kitchen Conservatory on April 17th.  Please visit www.kitchenconservatory.com to sign up.

you know you want to.  just do it.

http://www.kitchenconservatory.com/Schedule2.htm 

Oh…he’s in Ireland but I see his face in my daily newspaper! March 11, 2008

My sweet husband is featured in the PD’s weekly cooking column by Joe Bonwich.

I spoke to him this evening from Maghera. He is loving every minute of it there. He won’t be able to email the videos…so look for some footage of lambing season next week when he returns.

Deconstructed, double pork lasagna; sans ricotta March 7, 2008

so, I don’t know what to call this. I have been making this for some time now. it was born out of a need for cheesy, spicy, pasta bake when I didn’t have any lasagna noodles. It varies with every repeat but the gist of it goes like this:

1lb of noddles (penne rigate usually…i just like the way the slide onto my fork for easy upward motion to my mouth)

bechamel

spicy meat mixture

cheese/bread crumb topping.

It’s everything you need on one dish, creamy and comforting, good texture from the topping and spicy kick from the meat mixture. Today (I’m a bit under the weather and took the day to re-coup) I had some various pork products sitting in the fridge that needed to be used up. Bacon and prosciutto. I dare not put Jamón Ibérico Bellota into the mix but I did toy with the notion briefly.

So, I fried up the bacon, when it was crispy I threw in the prosciutto, shallots, garlic, oregano, basil, black pepper, red pepper flakes and pinch of sugar. Once all the flavors mangled together, I toppled in a can of tomato paste and thinned with a bit of stock. Note: I put A LOT of red/black pepper in that mix. It is way too spicy to eat with just pasta…I would not recommend it.

Then the basic bechamel. When desired consistency reached I shredded some Grandpa Ed and parmigiano reggiano into it (about a cup all together).

Par boiled the pasta for about 4 minutes. i like my pasta cruchy. al dente is a bit too soft for me. weird, huh. it’s a texture thing.

Then, in a gratin dish I spooned in some bechamel, then a layer of noodles, then some spicy pork mixture….and repeated until all used up. (lasagna-ish aspect of the dish) Put a lid of parm/some kind of hard cow’s milk cheese I found in the fridge that Si brought home that I don’t know the name of and some bread crumbs on the top and popped in a 375 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbly.

it’s good.