The Divine Lasagna Vs Penne

Penne Pasta

lasagna-bolognese

Why food?? maybe because its 12 noon and there was nothing to eat in the company  cafeteria, except Miso Ramen (Noodle dish), Hamburger, and an ill looking fish (but this is Japan, sharing common waters with china..no offense) and to my right the vending machine (which sustain me for almost a few months now)  close to being  vandalised by 3 of my frustrated colleagues. (I'm guessing it ran out of Sea food cup noodles again)

So I dropped my 500yen (LOL) back into my purse and with eyes diverted from the chef walk slowly out  and head back up into my cubicle, for another day of water detox diet. 

That's when I started dreaming about the divine lasagna and Penne pasta. And was just thinking if I'm home right now what would I cook? The Penne Pasta or Lasagna but ofcourse in my state, Id go for the Penne Pasta because its classy (not always in my case...)  but quick to pull together.

I then toss around the ingredients back and forth in my head (while my excel sheet remain blank...but so is my stomach) and then decided to just put it up on my blog (Lord knows i need more entries and seeing that this is what I'm thinking about right now .....GREEN LIGHT!!!). 

So adapted from my favourite recipe blog, here's the recipes.

Penne Pasta

ingredients.

• 1/2 pound penne pasta
• salt
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2cups of chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon of italian seasoning (blend of oregano, dried basil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, savory)
• dash red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp fresh thyme 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 2 1/2  cups canned of chunky tomato sauce
• 1 tbs fresh parsley 

Method

1 Heat to boiling a large pot with 4 quarts of water in it. Once the water is boiling, salt it with 1 Tbsp of salt. Once the water returns to a boil add the pasta to the pot. Leave uncovered, let cook on high heat with a vigorous boil. Put the timer on for 8-10 minutes, or whatever your pasta package says is appropriate for al dente (cooked but still a little firm). Drain.

2 Once you've started to heat the water, start working on the sauce. Heat olive oil in a very large skillet on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened. Add the garlic, fresh thyme, season with salt and pepper. Cook for an additional minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside.

3 Heat a large cast iron pan on high heat. Salt the bottom of the pan generously. Once the pan is hot, break up small chunks of ground beef and add them to the pan, without stirring. (You may need to work in batches; do not crowd the pan.) You want the meat to get well browned. If the pan is too hot and the meat is burning, not browning, take the pan off the heat for a little, and reduce the heat to medium high. On our coil electric stove, it takes the high heat setting for the meat to brown sufficiently, but your stove may be different. Once the meat is browned on one side (a couple of minutes), use a metal spatula to flip the meat over to brown on the other side. At this point, assuming you are using a cast iron pan, you can remove the pan from the heat. The residual heat in the pan will finish cooking the meat.

4 Use a slotted spoon to lift the meat from the cast iron pan and add it to the pan with the seasoned onions. Add tomato sauce. Use the edge of your metal spatula to break up the bigger chunks of meat into smaller pieces. Add basil. Add a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to a simmer on low heat, let cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

5 Once the sauce has simmered for 15 minutes, adjust seasonings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more sugar if the sauce is too acidic. Add more tomato sauce if the sauce is a little dry. Stir in the cooked penne pasta. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Lasagna

Ingredients:

• Bolognese Sauce
• 2 oz. Diced pancetta, finely chopped
• 1 Medium Spanish onion or yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 Stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 Carrot, finely chopped
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 11 oz Ground beef
• 4 oz Ground pork
• 4 oz Ground Italian sausage (It can be optional)
• 1 freshly ground clove
• Dash of freshly ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lb peeled and chopped tomatoes (or 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Béchamel Sauce

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter ( I just use whatever butter i can find at my fridge at that time ...works perfect)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose unbleached flour

Lasagna
Enough lasagna noodles to make four layers in a 13x9-inch baking pan with the lasagna pieces overlapping each other a little bit.
Recommended 16 sheets of De Cecco brand Italian lasagna noodles.
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 Make the soffritto. Combine pancetta, onion, celery, and carrot in sauté pan with butter and cook over medium heat until onion turns pale gold.
2 Add the beef, pork, sausage to the soffritto, and increase the heat to high; cook until browned. Sprinkle with the clove, cinnamon, and pepper.

3 Stir in tomatoes, bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. If you are using whole canned tomatoes, break them up as you add them to the sauce.
4 Add milk and season with sea salt. Then turn down the heat and let simmer for 2 and 1/2 hours. Stir at least every 20 minutes. Whenever the sauce simmers down to the point that it is sticking to the bottom of the pan, just add 1/4 cup of water and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom and continue to cook.

Make the Béchamel sauce.

5 Heat the milk until almost boiling in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. In a separate pan melt the unsalted butter with the flour over low heat. Stir rapidly with a spoon. Cook this for 1 minute and then remove from the heat. (See Wikipedia on Béchamel Sauce for more information on this sauce.)
6 Slowly add half the hot milk to your butter and flour mixture. During this process stir constantly.
7 Return the milk, butter, flour mixture to low heat until the sauce begins to thicken. Add the remaining milk slowly while stirring working it into the thickened sauce. Continue to stir until it comes to a boil.
8 Season with some sea salt, and continue stirring until the right consistency has developed. If any lumps form, beat them out rapidly with a whisk until they dissolve. Remove from heat.

Prepare the Lasagna

9 Preheat oven to 375°F. Cook the lasagna according to instructions. About 8 minutes in 6 quarts of boiling salted water. Drain, rinse with cold water. Lay the individual lasagna noodles out on kitchen towels, not touching, so they do not stick together while you layer the casserole.
10 Spread a little olive oil around the inside of a 13x9-inch baking pan. Make sure your baking pan is non-reactive - Pyrex or stainless steel. Do not use an aluminum pan as it will react with the acidity of the sauce and ruin the flavor. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down first. Layer on a third of the bolognese sauce, then a third of the bechamel sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Repeat two more times. Top with a final layer of noodles and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
11 Tent the casserole with aluminum foil. Put lasagna into the middle rack of a pre-heated 375°F oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the top begins to get lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serves 8.
Tip:
From experience with the Lasagna, Its good to have more bolognese sauce and the bechamel sauce, also cover the top with aluminium foil, to preserve moisture or else you'll be having crackers and bolognese sauce for dinner.
When doing this dish I substitute a lot of ingredients to my preference and it worked just fine.

 Whew!!! it worked....this is a win-win situation, I dont feel the hunger pangs anymore (meaning the water detox diet is for real....try it sometimes) and you have a new recipe to.........read!