Yesterday we made tomatillo sauce with sautéed onions, garlic,
1 green chili pepper, a dash of salt and pepper and when softened, she added
the tomatillos and ½ cup of chicken stock to give it flavor and cooked it for
about 1 to 1½ hour and then blended it in a blender to puree. We had picked the tomatillos from our garden
on Saturday.
Yesterday we also went to Ta Lin and bought Lobster mushrooms,
bok choy, onions, green bell peppers, fried tofu, and a few other items.
Today we were ready to make lasagna. Suzette usually makes fresh handmade pasta
for our lasagna and today was no exception.
When I arrived home at around 4:15 she was picking a large handful of chard
leaves in the garden. Starting at 4:30
p.m. she began making fresh pasta in the Cuisinart using 1 ½ cup of flour, 1
tsp. salt, 2 Tbsp. of dried mushroom powder and pulsed those ingredients to
mix. She then added two lightly beaten
eggs and pulsed until it reached a corn meal texture and added about ¼ cup of cold
water and a bit of olive oil until mixture consolidated into a ball of
dough. Suzette then rolled the pasta
into sheets using an Italian Atlas pasta rolling machine. The only difference today is that Suzette
added 2 Tbsp. of porcini mushroom powder she had bought from one of the
mushroom pickers in Taos last month.
While Suzette was making pasta I cut up 2 shallots and the
white portion of 2 leeks. I sliced three lobster mushrooms we bought at Ta Lin
yesterday. Suzette shredded about 1 lb. of Brussels sprouts in the Cuisinart
while I de-stemmed the large handful of chard.
Suzette sautéed the shredded Brussels sprouts, shallots and
leeks in one large skillet and the sliced lobster mushrooms in another skillet
in butter and olive oil. She also
steamed the chard and added a little olive oil to the steamed leaves.
We gathered bags of PPI fresh mozzarella grated Parmesan and
grated mozzarella cheeses from the fridge and I sliced the fresh mozzarella
into thin slices.
When the shallots, leeks and Brussels sprouts had softened
and the lobster mushrooms had sautéed until slightly brown on the edges and the
chard steamed and lightly drizzled with olive oil, we were ready to assemble
the lasagna.
We made a smaller amount than usual by using one of our
ceramic baking dishes.
Layer one - Suzette first laid a layer of sheets of fresh
pasta on the bottom of the dish. Then
she laid a layer of the sautéed leeks, shallots and shredded Brussels sprouts
and covered that layer with grated Parmesan cheese and then covered that with a
light layer of tomatillo sauce.
Layer two - Then she added another layer of pasta and
covered that with a layer of the sautéed lobster mushrooms, the fresh
mozzarella and some more tomatillo sauce.Layer Three - She laid a third layer of pasta and then the lightly steamed chard leaves and garnished that with the grated mozzarella and more tomatillo sauce.
Layer Four – she added one more layer of pasta and covered it with tomatillo sauce, and the last of the grated mozzarella and a layer of slices of Pecorino cheese.
She then baked the lasagna in a heated 350˚ oven for one
hour and we were ready to eat. Suzette
wanted a light red wine and we agreed that a bottle of Spanish La Granja Rioja would
be perfect because it contained 50% Grenache and 50% tempranillo grapes.
So we ate and enjoyed our simple but elegant peasant dinner
of hot baked lasagna with a glass of red wine.
This is our favorite type of lasagna because it uses fresh
tomatillos and chard from the garden.
About one hour after dinner Suzette scooped the last of the
vanilla ice cream into two bowls and topped that with the last of the brandied
strawberries and blackberries and we had a lovely dessert.
Bon Appétit
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