creamy beet surprise! pasta

In the usual "oh man it's Tuesday night and we just got all these new vegetables from the farm share we better eat *last* week's vegetables" scramble, I made this tasty pasta.



I started out with a mirepoix in butter. onion, carrot, celery, half a stick of butter. OK fine, a whole stick. Then garlic. Then I wasn't sure what my next move was. I we had beets, so I diced those fine and tossed them in too. Next up? some heavy cream. Or maybe it was half and half. And some milk. and some nutmeg. I let it reduce for serious. And then added a whole bag of spinach (chopped first - the leaves are big!). And then, I wasn't so sure about it, but I went for it, and added a bunch of cheddar cheese. I was worried it would overwhelm the sauce - but actually it was delicious. I cooked it over some delicious cavatappi (a gift from chloe)...



It was darn tasty.

lasagna (avec "votre bechamel"}

While sarah elisabeth was in france with gina marie, we were treated to an amazing lasagna from our friend, Zeke.

Zeke had, of course, gotten the recipe from another woman, but added his own elements. like ricotta and nutmeg.

We loved reading the package of fresh lasagna noodles that we got at Carrefour. It gave very simple instructions on how to make a lasagna (about 5 lines.) The 3rd like Prepare "votre bechamel." that was it, nothing else, because, clearly, you have your own bechamel, so you should prepare it.

All lasagna should have cream sauce, really.

So, I attempted to recreate Zeke's lasagna. It's not quite as good, but it is still pretty delicious.

Here is the recipe I emailed myself:

Lasagna

500 grams low fat ground beef
make ragu
fry in little oil and salt til brown, crispy, done

in another skillet
onion, carrot, celery, little oil

add vegetables to meat

add healthy glass red wine

1 liter stock (if cooking for 3 hours)

1 small can tomato puree
6 fresh tomatoes

1/2 hr before meat is done, prepare votre bechamel:

make a roux: 100g melt butter, add white flour, stir (leave it pretty wet
do NOT remove from heat
stir
add milk until bechamel is satisfying
s+p
nutmeg


olive oil in bottom of pan
noodle
ricotta
parmesan
bechamel
noodle
meat sauce
noodle
white
noodle
red

end with
meat
bechamel
parmesan

(extra veg in bechamel layer - zucchini, peppers, etc.)

bake at 375 for 45 minutes.
























And that's what I did.