Lasagna My Way

I think lasagna is a great dish to make for a dinner party. It can be made ahead of time and it stays warm for a long time so there is some built-in flexibility. It is really easy to make and most people like it.
Start with a simple marinara sauce: Canned plum tomatoes; garlic; olive oil; salt and pepper. You can add a few anchovies if keeping it vegetarian isn't a concern. The filling is a mixture of 3 pounds Ricotta cheese, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup Parmesan, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1-1/2 Tbsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. black pepper. Just mix it all up in a bowl and set aside. Then shred about a pound of mozzarella and 3/4 pound of provolone.
To assemble the lasagna, use a deep pan and start with sauce on the bottom. Then a layer of lasagna noodles, then ricotta mixture and a sprinkle of the shredded cheeses. There is no need to cook the noodles, if the sauce is wet and loose they will cook perfectly in the oven. Repeat layers until the pan is almost full. Be sure to end with sauce and cheese, not noodles.
Cover the pan with 2 layers of Saran wrap and 1 layer of foil. Bake at 350 for 1-1/2 hours, then let it sit, covered for at least 30-40 minutes or up to 1 hour. If you make it ahead of time, refrigerate before cooking and allow an extra half hour cooking time.
That's it. This is an easy dish. All of the work can be done anywhere from 2 hours to a few days before you want to serve it and it will taste just as good either way.

In defense of Parsley

Parsley seems to be universally accepted as a garnish, but almost ignored as a flavorful herb. I think part of the fault lies with curly parsley which doesn't lend itself to cooking so well. It really must be chopped to be used as an ingredient and its flavor leaves much to be desired.
Flat leaf or Italian parsley however is very flavorful and can be simply picked into small pieces, sliced with scissors or cut into a chiffonade. Any one of these techniques will yield much more flavor than pulverizing the poor parsley to death in a food processor.
Parsley has a clean flavor that complements many different dishes. It brightens up the earthy qualities of roasted vegetables or meats. It softens the sharpness of vinegar or lemon juice and it can of course add visual appeal to a dull looking dish of just about any kind. It is one of those ingredients, like salt and pepper, that doesn't really seem to clash with anything savory.
Parsley is a great herb to grow yourself. It is really low maintenance and growing your own means that you can pick just a few sprigs without having to buy a whole bunch to wilt in the bottom of your produce drawer. While it will grow just fine in a sunny window, the flavor will be much better if grown outside.

Attention Cheese Lovers

I just discovered that my favorite cheese shop has a blog that I think is very informative. Check it out.
And if you are in Philadelphia, don't miss their store in the Italian market. It is a family owned customer friendly place with the best selection of cheese and Italian specialties you'll find in the area.

Campfire Cooking

Tonight I'll be heading for the Catskills to do some tent camping. One of the best parts of a camping trip is cooking on a hardwood campfire. The flavor imparted from real wood can't be beat. It has a purity that even natural lump charcoal, my preferred charcoal of choice, can't match. I think being outdoors in the fresh air of the Catskills definitely gets the appetite going. Hiking, wood cutting and swimming help too. But a thick sirloin steak cooked on a hot hardwood fire is probably the tastiest steak that there is.
In the Summer I like to grill corn right in the husks. One Summer while camping on North Hero Island we grilled local butter and sugar corn on driftwood collected from Lake Champlain. It was THE best corn I've ever had in my life and I live in a state renowned for its sweet corn.
Besides my boys favorite campfire foods, hot dogs on a stick and s'mores, I like to grill chicken parts, fish and chops too. In short, anything that can be grilled seems better grilled on a campfire.

Why knife skills matter

 Sometimes when reading a recipe you come across words like chop, dice, mince and slice. If you are making a puree of broccoli soup you might wonder what's the difference how I cut my onions since they're all eventually going into the blender anyway. In short, the answer is that it matters quite a bit.

 Most soups and sauces call for a mirepoix in the beginning, which is essentially a mixture of some aromatic vegetables which build the foundation of flavor for the final product. Paying close attention to detail here really is important because it can have a profound impact on the flavor at the end. Minced onions might taste burned if they are included in a mirepoix with big pieces of carrot and celeriac. Conversely, rough chopped vegetables might give too much of a raw vegetal taste to a sauce.

 Recipes should indicate how to cut the vegetables for the mirepoix, but if they don't a good rule of thumb is that they should be somewhat uniform in size and shape. You might want to cut hard vegetables like carrots and parsnips slightly smaller than softer ones like onions and celery.

 Now the reason why I titled this post "Why knife skills matter" is because how you get the mirepoix cut is probably more important than why you cut it to begin with. The First Commandment of mirepoix cutting is "Thou shall not use a food processor". Even a brand new one with a razor sharp blade will tear and crush the vegetables instead of chopping or dicing them. This is really important because vegetables naturally have a high water content. If they're crushed the water weeps out of them immediately, contributing off-flavors which won't cook out.

 Think about waking up in the morning and having a delicious glass of celery juice. Is this the flavor that comes to mind when you taste Coq au Vin or Ratatouille. These dishes both depend heavily on how the vegetables are cut. No machine can do it properly.

 Hand cut vegetables also make a big difference in things like coleslaw. Machine chopped cabbage is so watery that even a thick dressing will result in soupy coleslaw.

 Try chopping, slicing and dicing by hand the next time you make something that calls for vegetables to be cut and you will see what I mean.

Reading Between the Lines

 Humor me for a minute if you will. You are going out for dinner tonight to a new place that opened a few months ago that you have been meaning to try. No one has been there yet so you really don't know what to expect, but you've decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a go. After all, it's only 1 meal in your lifetime, right? What's the worst that could happen? 

 You sit down and are handed a menu. This is it! How do you know if something will taste good? When reading a menu for the first time, you have to try and get a feel for the place. Sometimes it's so easy. Everything sounds great. Things just seem to go together naturally. Your biggest dilemma is that you are expected to narrow down your choices to maybe 1 or 2 appetizers and 1 entree. Great problem to have.

 But wait, what's that? Seared Diver Scallops with a Huckleberry Pilaf and Pomegranate Emulsion.... What? You're in for trouble.... Why? Because unless the restaurant you are eating in happens to be named Jean Georges, the chef probably has no clue what they're doing. So few chefs understand how to pair fruit with savory items. Generally you get a highfalutin pancake topping. 

 The reason some fruits pair well with some rich foods is because of the fruit's natural acidity. But for some reason too many restaurant chefs take the fruit and bring it right to the edge of tasting like sundae topping, or in the worst case, over the edge. I have been disappointed so many times that unless I really know the chef I will steer clear of any dish that sounds like it might be suited for a pie crust and a glass of milk to wash it down.

 I don't know why this trend is so prevalent. Is it fear of rejection? Do people not understand the role that acidity plays in cooking? I really like Steak au Poivre. I really like Peach Cobbler, but please don't pair them with each other! They won't enhance the other one. Keep dessert as a separate course.

 I'll take a good Duck a l'Orange any day. But hold back on the sugar. I want to taste the duck.

Roasting Asparagus

 Over the past few years I have fundamentally changed the way I cook asparagus. I no longer steam or boil it, ever. I roast it in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and salt. Try it once or twice and you'll never go back. I like to roast it to the point where some of the tips are black, just before burned. The flavor is incredible because of the smoky taste that the roasting imparts as well as the fact that you aren't boiling away flavor. The roasting really concentrates the flavor and enhances the texture.

 The same results can be obtained on a grill as well. I wouldn't light a fire just to cook asparagus, but if you are grilling anyway, why not? Just toss the asparagus with a little olive oil and salt and lay it on the grill perpendicular to the bars. Leave it on the grill until it gets really dark then flip it once and cook for another minute or two. 

 Regardless of which way you choose, don't blanch it ahead of time. Even thick asparagus works really well with this method. Just cook it a little longer over a slightly lower heat. I like to take it out of the pan or off the fire and cut the lower half of the spears in  1/8 inch slices, then just leave the tips whole. It's all delicious!

 Other vegetables like cauliflower and carrots are truly transformed this way too. Try it.