It actually almost feels like fall could be around the corner. Actually, who am I kidding, it only almost feels not completely like we are roasting in the fifth circle of hell. A request was made for lasagna, but despite my general love of garlic and basil, I was just not in a mood for the garlicy, acidic sauce I usually throw on my lasagna (and every other pasta). Last night we also reminisced about the first meal J ever made for me, spaghetti with a mushroom sherry sauce. Of course, he tried to make it again on our anniversary, burned the sauce, I think also the pasta, and destroyed a lovely carpet all at the same time. Best laid plans and all that.
We had some tomatoes and leeks left over from our
Gorman Farm CSA share, that needed to be used up before they went off. I decided to make a simple ricotta cheese lasagna with a sauce using up some of the left over vegetables. I tried to convince J that some squash would be lovely inside the lasagna, but he resisted. This sauce worked well with this autumn-y feeling lasagna, and would be very nice over pasta and squash, or a lasagna made from slices of squash when one feels the unnatural need to play around with the low carb thing.
Anyway, back to the food. I'm a big fan of fresh tomato sauces, and I don't like to seed my tomatoes (I actually like the texture and flavor of the seeds. August in Maryland means tomatoes - and a lot of them. J's issue with the CSA every year is that inevitably, we get deluded with tomatoes in August, and after a couple nights of pasta with fresh tomato sauce, he's bored and has heartburn. I could be industrious and can tomato sauce, but I'm not that organized. For this sauce I used large beefsteak tomatoes, since that's what we had. It worked well, though I would be more likely to choose a plum tomato if I was actually going out and buying things specifically for the sauce. The tomatoes used had a good bit of sweetness and not that much acid - as always, taste, taste, taste the produce and adjust according.
Tomato leek sherry sauce
Ingredients:
3 large tomatoes
4 small to medium leeks
1 small onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Salt
Pepper
Method:
- Boil water in a small pot, deep enough to dunk each tomato and keep it fully submerged.
- Prepare a bowl with cold water and ice, or set up a colander under a source for running cold water.
- Score each tomato with a shallow "x" knife cut at the bottom. Place tomato in boiling water for 1 minute, until the skin starts to peel away. -- - Place tomato in cold water for 1-2 minutes, or rinse under cold water. - Peel off skin with fingers.
- Repeat until all tomatoes are skinned.
- Heat olive oil and butter over medium-low heat in a large saucepan or pot - I use my enameled cast iron dutch oven for this.
- Peel off outer layer of leek, rinse well, cut off stem and dark green parts. Slice white and light green parts of leek thinly, then rinse again. Leeks tend to get a lot of dirt.
- Dice onion.
- Place onion and leek into pot, stir, cook over medium-low heat about 5-10 minutes.
- Dice tomatoes, discarding stem area.
- After making sure that the leek and onion mixture is fairly translucent, toss in tomatoes, 2-4 teaspoons of salt, and 2-4 teaspoons of pepper.
- Increase heat to high and wait for mixture to come to a boil.
- Add half a cup of decent sherry - I used Harvey's Bristol Cream.
- Reduce heat to medium, cook another 5 minutes.
- Taste.
- Add salt and pepper as needed. If the tomatoes are really acidic sugar might be necessary.
- Blend sauce with either a stick blender or in a blender. BE CAREFUL not to splash and burn. Sauce should be more orangey or pink than red.
- Taste.
- Add salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve or use in the recipe below.
Lasagna with tomato leek sherry sauce
Ingredients:
Tomato leek sherry sauce (recipe above)
1/2 package fresh lasagna noodles or half pound dried lasagna noodles, prepared according to box directions.
8 ounces whole milk ricotta
2 tablespoons hazelnut oil (really worth it, but if you don't have it, use olive)
8 ounces shredded mozzarella / Italian blend cheese / pizza cheese
Salt
Pepper
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Mix ricotta and oil until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste (2 teaspoons each is my suggestion).
- Spritz a bread pan with nonstick spray or spray oil (this keeps me from pigging out and eating a half pan of lasagna for lunch the next day).
- Layer a bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Lay prepared noodles down to make a one noodle thick cover.
- Layer ricotta mixture over noodle layer.
- Repeat noodle / ricotta layers until noodles and ricotta are exhausted and/or the pan is full.
- Pour remaining sauce on top. Jiggle so it gets into the layers.
- Top with shredded cheese.
- Bake 45 minutes.
- Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.
I am a big fan of the garlic scape in the spring and early summer. A garlic scape is the flower stalk of the hardneck garlic plant - it is removed to concentrate energy in the bulb. It is also delicious spring eating. It has a much milder flavor than garlic, but can be used where one uses garlic. To me, garlic scapes and strawberries are the beginning of the season of local produce in Howard County and the rest of the mid-Atlantic. 
