Generally when one thinks of lasagna one pictures a heavenly pan of baked pasta, sauce, cheese, and meat bubbling away. As with many Italian dishes, significant regional variations exist. In some areas, the sauce is likely to be a simple tomato sauce or a ragù; in others, a Béchamel sauce. Ingredients may include meatballs, sausage and sliced hard-boiled eggs.
With this in mind I started to read Marcella’s recipe for Lasagna with Ricotta Pesto. I was quick to learn that my image of lasagna was due to be expanded . . . not the first time this has happened during this cooking challenge! Mind you, as long as it is only my mind that is expanding and not my stomach I guess I won’t complain!
This is a dish that is common to the Italian Riviera – that narrow strip of land hugging the coast and stretching from La Spezia to the French border. This lasagna is only boiled – not baked. It doesn’t have any additional cheese, meat, or tomato sauce.
In Genoa this dish is called piccagge which translates roughly into napkin or dish cloth. Essentially that is what it is – layers of cooked lasagna noodles with a wonderful ricotta pesto spread between them. I followed Marcella’s machine pasta recipe from page 130 and made her ricotta pesto recipe from p. 178 (although I may have been a tad more liberal with the olive oil than Marcella suggested in the recipe). Once the pesto was made and the noodles cooked the actually dish was on the table in about 5 minutes – a far cry from the half day marathon that is needed to make a lasagna in the Bolognese manner.
All in all this was the easiest lasagna I have ever made. The presentation was impressive and the taste was fresh and light! I know that when my basil is out of control this summer we will be enjoying this dish over and over again!