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Corona Cookbook: Lasagna

Wild with Mushrooms

By: - Jul 18, 2020

 

Today am sending my calling card recipe for wild mushroom and three cheese lasagna, with a few for Corona Cookbook recipes. 

I have been making this dish for decades and continually perfecting it along the way. It is a many-steps production which I look at as a therapy session. For those who love (and want) a slow hand it is a gift.

The great thing about this recipe is that I get to freeze a great deal of it and then pull it out, as needed, during the following month. I also get to share it with my lovely next-door neighbors. 

I am posting the recipe  and a couple of photos, one of which is of the young couple, Alexis and Dominic that live across the hall from me.  

Wild Mushroom and Three Cheese Lasagna

Note: I have found that it is better to have more sauce, more mushrooms than less. 

Tomato Mushroom Sauce:

1-ounce package of dried Porcini mushrooms

1 cup water

3 packages of frozen chopped spinach. *** You can also use fresh spinach.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

16 ounces button mushrooms, slices

10 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried

1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

½ cup dry red wine

1 - 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree

 *** If you are using frozen spinach which is what I prefer, when done you must squeeze out all of the water, as it will add too much liquid to the lasagna.

Filling:

2 – 15-ounce containers ricotta cheese or one 32-ounce container.

½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (about 1 ½ ounces)

1/2 cup pesto sauce (purchased it fine)

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

15 lasagna noodles.  (I cook 17 in case one tears during preparation)

26 ounces of Fontina cheese shredded

1 large tomato seeded, chopped

Fresh Basil or rosemary

 For Sauce:

Rinse porcini mushrooms briefly under cold water. Place in small bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water over and let soak for 30 minutes to soften.  Remove mushrooms from soaking liquid squeezing excess liquid back into bowl; reserve soaking liquid. Chop mushrooms, discarding any hard stems.

Heat oil in Dutch oven or heavy skillet. Add onion and cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add Porcini, button and shiitake mushrooms and garlic. Sauté until mushrooms begin to soften. Add rosemary and crushed red pepper and sauté 30 seconds. Add wine.  Pour in reserved mushroom soaking liquid, leaving any sediment behind. Increase heat to high and boil liquid until reduced by half. Add canned tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until thick, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. 

 For Filling:

Combine ricotta, parmesan, pesto, and chopped tomato in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in eggs and yolk. Sauce can be prepared a day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

 Cook noodles in pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally.  Drain. Rinse under cold water to cool. 
Step One:

 

  1. Oil a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. *

* I have a few lasagna dishes. I use a my larger one which is 3-inches high, as there are    many layers and at the end of last layer you want to push down on the top so as to make them compact.                         

  1. Spread ¼ of tomato mushroom sauce over bottom of dish.

 

Step Two:

 

  1. Arrange 5 lasagna noodles in baking dish
  2. Spread ½ of filling evenly over noodles.  
  3. Spread ¼ of tomato mushroom sauce evenly over noodles
  4. Sprinkle 1/3 of Fontina cheese evenly over noodles             

 

Step Three:

         

  1. Top with lasagna 5 noodles
  2. Spread second half of filling evenly over noodles
  3. Spoon ¼ tomato mushroom sauce evenly over noodles         
  4. Sprinkle 1/3 of Fontina cheese evenly over noodles      

 

Step Four:                

 

  1. Top with 5 lasagna noodles
  2. Press gently to compact
  3. Spread remaining ¼ of tomato mushroom sauce evenly over noodles
  4. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cheese evenly over noodles                               

 

It can be prepared a day in advance, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let lasagna stand 1 hour at room temperature before continuing.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover lasagna with foil and set on baking sheet. Bake 35 minutes, uncover and continue baking until sauce bubbles and cheese melts, about 35 minutes. If not bubbling leave in oven until it does. Remove from Oven let stand for 15 minutes.

Note: Among the first things we I was learned at the French Culinary Institute was Mise en place which is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "everything in its place".

This phrase refers to the setup required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift. The practice can be applied in home kitchens.

As you will see in this recipe the sauce, the spinach, the filling, and the Fontina cheese are to be divided in portions. Below, just to wet your whistle, and to give you a peak, as to what is in store, I listed the proportions for each. I must say that I used a lot of bowls and a lot of pots and pans, as I had all of my portions set out before I started to cook.

Mushroom Tomato Sauce – 4 equal portions

Filling – 2 equally divided portions

Spinach – 2 equally divided portions

Fontina Cheese – 3 equally divided portions    

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