Liana's Fairfield

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Spags Lasags

























In their Super Bowl Winning Season of 2007-2008, the NY Giants' Defensive Coordinator was Steve Spagnuolo, affectionately dubbed "Spags" by his players.  And I think if he were to make this dish it would be called "Spags' Lasags".

There's not too much mystery about it...a lot of people who say they don't cook still have a recipe for lasagna.  As user-friendly as it is, I will admit to struggles over the years, mainly with texture and the agony of cutting into it hot only to have it fall apart into a soupy mess when plating.  People always comforted me by saying "it still tastes delicious", covering it over with a blanket of sauce, but that was small consolation.  

Sometimes I still fly too close to the Sun and layer it too high, or I add too much watery sauce or something and it looses its rigidity, but for the most part I've found a formula that works...moderation if you can believe it.  I consider this my Italian-American lasagna, more southern Italy in style, whereas the more northern Bolognese features meat sauce and bechamel, no mozzarella or ricotta. 

There's something very familiar about the melding of flavors when you bake ricotta, mozzarella and tomato sauce together between layers of pasta.  It's like so many Christmases, birthday parties and family get-togethers rolled into one taste memory. 

When you need an inexpensive, festive and crowd- pleasing meal for a lot of people, it's as good a bet as any dish I can think of. 

Since it's been a part of my food life as long as I can remember, I don't try to do too much with it, like adding lots of herbs or different kinds of cheeses.  But good, fresh ingredients will take it from satisfying to memorable...fresh pasta was never part of tradition for me, but I've since begun making it requisite and there's no looking back.  I haven't gotten to the point of making my own ricotta for this recipe, but I get more zealous with age, so it's only a matter of time.     

Ingredients:

32 oz. fresh mozzarella, grated or run through a food processor

32 oz. ricotta

Basic tomato sauce, recipe follows

Fresh pasta dough, recipe follows

1/2 lb. Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, plus more for garnish

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Optional: herbs like basil, oregano, or thyme



Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Get your mis en place ready; have all your components arranged for easy access, step by step.  Drizzle the olive oil then ladle some sauce into the bottom of a deep baking dish, enough to form an even coating.  Place sheets of pasta (that's right, no need to par boil or anything!) cut to the size of the dish long ways, slightly overlapping.  On top of this gently spread a layer of ricotta (don't worry if it's not totally even and covering every inch of surface, it'll spread out during cooking).  Then sprinkle some of the grated mozzarella, followed by Parmigiano Reggiano, and herbs if you want to use them. 

 

Begin the next layer by ladling on sauce, followed by pasta, going across the pan short ways, and repeat as before.  Do this for as many more layers as you can manage, alternating direction of the pasta sheets and cutting them to size.  For the top layer, I like just sauce and Parmigiano Reggiano, but you can do mozzarella as well if you like.  Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes uncovered, until the edges are bubbling and browned.

I like to let mine cool an hour before slicing and serving, or I let it cool longer and then reheat on warm in the oven before slicing and serving.  Plate with some more tomato sauce ladled on and and another sprinkle of Parmigiano Reggiano.  Take your lactose pill and enjoy!

Basic Tomato Sauce:

4 28 oz. to 32 oz. cans San Marzano Tomatoes, pureed in a food processor or blender
4 cloves garlic, minced

4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: herbs like basil, oregano or thyme

Optional: 2 medium onions, finely diced

Optional: 1/2 cup to 1 cup dry white wine

Couple things...I like to puree the tomatoes before cooking, because in this way they will lose redness initially but regain it during cooking, whereas if you puree after it's been cooking a while, the sauce will end up more of a dull orange red.  No difference in taste, but I think the former looks more appetizing. 

Also, the onions and wine are optional because that sauce is something I do for part of my family who can't eat garlic.  The onions add sweetness and mellow the acid of the tomatoes for a different but good flavor nonetheless.  To make that variation, add the onions instead of the garlic, let them soften and just begin to brown, deglaze with the wine, and then proceed as you would with the other recipe.     

Turn the heat to medium and add the olive oil while the pan is still cool, then add the garlic.  Let it cook as the pan comes up to heat, rendering out the flavor of the garlic, but before the garlic gets brown add the tomato puree.  Bring it to a low boil and then let it simmer gently for 45 minutes or so, until reduced some.  Add salt and pepper to taste and any herb at this point.  It's better the next day.    

Basic Pasta Dough:

3 1/2 cups or 400 grams of 00 or all purpose flour

4 jumbo eggs

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Optional: replace 1 cup or 100 grams of white flour with semolina

Make a well in the middle of the flour on a work surface or in a large bowl.  Add the eggs, beaten, and the olive oil, and using a fork, begin incorporating the flour, a bit at a time, into the egg.  When the wet and dry are mostly mixed, begin using your hands, pushing with your knuckles, to form a rough ball. 

Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes, adding just enough flour, if needed, to keep it from sticking to the work surface (and letting it rest for a couple minutes during the process if it becomes too difficult to work), stretching and folding it into itself, until it results in a smooth ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 to 40 minutes. 

To make the pasta sheets, follow manufacturer instructions for a pasta roller and roll sheets to the 3rd thinnest setting.  If rolling by hand with a rolling pin, roll out until the pasta is translucent and even in thickness.      

Fried Spiced Levantine Meatballs: Kibbeh

There are lots of ways to prepare meat and bulgur wheat and call it kibbeh...it can be raw (obviously requiring very fresh lamb or beef), baked, cooked in broth, or in my assumed favorite rendition, fried.  I've only had it baked and fried, and since fried is usually the utmost way to cook anything, I feel pretty secure that it's the besht.

The croquettes or torpedoes, as they're usually shaped, are comprised of a meat and bulgur mixture encasing a pre-cooked saute of ground meat, onions, spices and pine nuts.  So this is a multi-phase endeavor, but I find it's composed of few enough ingredients and basic enough technique to be done start to finish in an hour.  The medium to deep frying cooks what seem like pretty big masses of meat in only about 10 minutes.

I love how spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice are used in North African, Levantine and Middle Eastern cuisine with savory things in ways that are sort of counter-intuitive to European-American palettes.  The aroma of the spices emanates from these when you bite into them, the dense and salty meat of the outside giving way to the seasoned mixture in the middle with pine nuts and sweet onion.

Presenting kibbeh to people who hither to have not experienced this type of cuisine can be a tough sell at first.  They don't necessarily look that beautiful if you know what I mean, and the idea of the combination of meat and spices associated with dessert or or hot cider seems off.  But usually after just one try, people are quickly converted, their minds opened.

Traditional dipping sauce is one simply made with tahini, but I often make a tzatziki variation, both of which I've included recipes for here.
 

Ingredients For Kibbeh:
2 lbs. plus 1 lb. ground meat (lamb, beef, turkey or chicken, 10%-20% fat)
1 medium onion roughly chopped plus 1 medium onion diced

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon allspice plus 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups medium coarse bulgur wheat

32 oz. vegetable oil for frying

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts (optional toasted)

2 teaspoons salt plus 1 teaspoon

1 teaspoon pepper plus 1/2 teaspoon

Soak the bulgur in just enough water to cover for 20 to 30 minutes, then drain well.  In a food processor combine 2 lbs. of the meat, the bulgur and the roughly chopped onion. 

Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.  At this point a purist might say you're done seasoning this portion, but I like to add 1 tablespoon of allspice to carry the flavor throughout.  Your call.  Process the ingredients until smooth and homogeneous.

To make the filling, saute the diced onion in the olive oil until it's softened, then add the lb. of ground meat and cook until it's beginning to brown and is cooked through.  Add the remaining spices, the salt, pepper and the pine nuts and stir to coat the meat in the spices.  Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
 

Heat the vegetable oil to a steady 375° F.  To make the kibbeh, take a raquet ball portion of meat and bulgur mixture and form into a ball.  Then make an indentation in the center. 

Take some of the cooked meat mixture and place it in the indentation, sealing the mixture over it, then shape the kibbeh into a miniature football shape and set it aside on a dish.  Repeat this until all the meat and bulgur mixture is used.

Add the kibbeh to the frying pan or fryer in batches to avoid over-crowding, and cook, turning 3 to 4 times, for 10 to 12 minutes until the outside is well browned and they are firm to the touch.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a pan lined with absorbent paper.  Hit with some salt immediately.

Serve hot with tahini sauce or yogurt sauce.

Tahini Sauce for Dipping:

1/2 cup tahini paste

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Juice of 1 to 2 lemons, to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor combine the ingredients and process until smooth, adding more lemon juice or water to get the desired consistency - smooth and not chunky, but not watery either.

Yogurt Sauce for Dipping:

1 18 oz. container Greek yogurt

1 clove of garlic, minced

Juice of 1 to 2 lemons

A few pinches of dill, dried or fresh

1/2 of an english cucumber, minced

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients together.  For best results make several hours in advance.



Catching a Red-Eye With Beets on the Menu

I've never actually flown on a red-eye flight; in my line of work it's not really necessary.  Nor have I had beets on a plane before, but I do enjoy digesting beta vulgaris, emphasis on vulgaris.    

This recipe is adapted from the Barcelona Restaurant Group Cookbook...after getting very used to beets being paired with goat cheese over the years, I found, through this recipe, that they go as well or better with a bleu cheeses, which have more of a piquant salinity against the sweet and earthy beets.

When working with beets I enjoy seeing the bright red juices that ensue, concentrated by roasting, and I wonder if I have anything I could dye...like Afghan elders who use it to add pizzazz to their beards.

You can roast them whole as Barcelona's recipe suggests, but to save time you can peel the beets before cooking and cut them into cubes, making for a pretty quick salad, tapa or side. 

Ingredients:

2 bunches of beets, or 6-8 medium-sized bulbs, rinsed

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted in a 350° oven for 10 minutes (keep an eye on them)

1/4 lb. bleu cheese (whichever type you like)

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or walnut oil if you have some lying around

Fresh flat leaf parsley

Salt & pepper to taste



Preheat the oven to 450°.  Cut the stalks and the root ends off the beets, and place a couple to a few on a sheet of tin foil, then wrap the foil up and seal it closed.  Place the foil packets on baking sheets and bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the beets, until a knife pierces easily. 

Remove from the oven and let cool, foil still sealed for 5-10 minutes.  Then open the foil, and using rubber kitchen gloves or a clean but non-decorative kitchen rag, peel away the skin.  It should come off very easily.

Cut the beets into 1" cubes and toss immediately with the rice wine vinegar.  It's suggested that you let them marinate this way, refrigerated, for 2 days.  I did just a quick pickle though and found it to be sufficient.  


Plate the beets and crumble the bleu cheese over them, along with the nuts.  Drizzle conservatively with oil and garnish with parsley if you like.  Let people season to taste with salt and pepper individually.