Lasagna

Years back during a Christmas party I had the best Lasagna I ever tasted, better than some of these so-called "authentic" italian restaurant. Nope, not kidding. It was so good that I went back for thirds and so did EVERYONE! So it was gone within minutes! However the taste of that wonderful pasta casserole lingered in my mind AND tongue for years to come. Since then I'd tried to search high and low for a lasagna recipe that remotely fit in that delicious wonder that I had at that party. The stupid thing of all was that I didn't even ask for the recipe from the host, who incidentally make one of the best lasagna around. Now what was I thinking! I think it was all that alcohol that I had that night that made me all tongue tied!!! Till this every day I am STILL kicking myself.

Although I've yet find that mysterious lasagna recipe, I had tried out many others and had fine-tuned my lasagna. Of course, throughout my experimentation I'd made (unfortunately) many a disasterous lasagna but on the bright side, I discovered a good many keepers.

Not so very long ago, I found a new passion to make my own pasta/noodles and I frequently used my pasta maker (so often that it's now squeaking....probably from fatique). However the thought of making my own lasagna sheets never ever occurred to me?? How odd. I had always used the store bought dried sheets and somehow never found them to be very appetizing. These sheets were always thick (too thick in my opinion) and tend to be soggy after all the cooking (probably overcooking?). Well, in any case, when I read THIS recipe I decided that I would make my own pasta sheets since it did call for FRESH lasagna sheets! I didn't want to buy them coz it can get real costly and really, I'm already making my own pasta....(no brainer!)



I used the recipe from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners. It takes a fresh look in making simple lasagna and I'm really curious how the creme fraiche white sauce would taste in this recipe! Not only that but it also uses roasted squash in one of the layers, now, tell me that doesn't sound fascinating enough.

So I went about making lasagna sheets but thing is, I didn't know how thick the fresh lasagna sheets are supposed to be... I decided to just follow my instincts instead. The pasta recipe I had barely yielded enough sheets for one lasagna recipe so I added a little more flour and egg to make a little extra (hey, you can always freeze the unused portion for something else!). The fresh lasagna sheets (they were made solely with flour and eggs)were a delight and I loved the texture of it. It was so smooth and the smell....YUMMY! I already had some homemade ragu sauce and used that for the "red" sauce in the lasagna. Of course, I had to make do with some other substitute ingredients coz I didn't have everything needed for that particular recipe. But it was all good! The final result was a beatiful tasting and textured lasagna. Everything came together wonderfully and even though it was a little more work in making this lasagna, this is definitely a keeper for me in my journey for the one and only lasagna! :)