Lasagne with Artichokes
This is most certainly NOT a Rachel Ray recipe but it is as rich and wonderful as it is time consuming. Luckily for me I had my trusty, well-trained assistant, Kathryn, to help me out.
I trimmed and cooked the artichokes; Kathryn made the béchamel. We made the pasta and did the assembly together. I loved pulling the cold lasagne out of the water to wash them gently “like lingerie” as Marcella directs.
We did all of this on Wednesday morning because I had a busy day planned on Thursday and one of Kathryn’s good friends from college was coming to visit. I preheated the oven and put in the pan, after leaving it out of the refrigerator for about an hour. That’s when disaster struck. We had a big thunderstorm and lost power. “Disastro!!!” The oven stayed hot enough to heat the lasange through but I wasn’t able to get a nice crust on the top. We ate it with a salad and candlelight. It was hot but I am not sure it was really fully cooked. Still, it was silky smooth and delicious.
I took a photo before I put it into the oven but didn’t try later, since the light was literally non existent
A few little notes–we got seven layers out of the recipe but we didn’t really need the two inch high sides on the pan. It would have worked fine in a regular,
Pyrex 9X13 inch dish.
Jan, so sorry to hear about the loss of power.
I mentioned in an earlier post that my husband and I are passionate about this recipe. I think I may have even said “insanely passionate”. We are also fortunate to have access to very good artichokes.
Jan, the lasagne were certainly cooked, although they were not finished off with the very nice they form on top. In my oven the broiler element is overhead and it works like a salamander. When the lasagne are (I use the plural Italian-style) done at the regular oven temperature, I turn on the oven for a minute to crisp the top.
@ Susie L. I wonder if you and Mark were introduced to this in Venice where the artichokes are sublime. What kind of artichokes do you have access to? I no longer use the big globe artichokes, I wait for the baby artichokes to get to the market.
Marcella, we never made this in your classes, but we remember well the beautiful artichokes of May at the Rialto.
We live in Marin County, just a few miles North of the Golden Gate Bridge. We have a fantastic farmer’s market here and it manages to get better every year.
We have two seasons for artichokes, Spring and Fall. Fall is a shorter season than Spring. Spring and Fall is when we make this dish, as well as your recipe for preserved artichokes. At other times of year, we look for moderately sized artichokes, never the huge globe types. We often make your alla Romana and your stuffed artichoke recipes with the moderate size. The huge globe types we see here are very tough, with a huge choke.
We are now seeing artichokes with a purple tinge to them, reminiscent of what we have seen in Italy, as well as long-stemmed artichokes.
Speaking of preserving, we are going to make your Melanzane sott’Olio today!