The Red and White

Assalamualaikum,

To some, chocolate is their comfort food.Me on the other hand,would dive in a pool of cheese. Craving for something cheesy and Italian, I made spinach n cheese lasagna AGAIN! Super yummy.!We haven’t been eating meat for quite awhile and the idea of eating meat now seems a bit erm..weird..Who knew veggies can be so yummy? This is my second time making lasagna on my own. Mine ends up a little bit too dry so here is the altered recipe. =D

1½ can of tomato sauce

1 tomato

A bunch of spinach

4 to 5 stalk of button mushrooms

½ onions

5 cloves of garlic

¼ cup of butter

¼ cup (more or less) flour

3 cups (or more) milk

2 tablespoon of chili flakes

1 cup of cheese(of your choice)

¼ cup of breadcrumbs

Oil

Salt and spices

The red sauce

1.       Heat the oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit (more or less, I told you how old my stove and oven is, there’s no dial on it! Hooray!)(thx Aneesah!=D)

2.       Chop the onion, garlic, tomato into small pieces.

3.       Sautee the garlic and onion until it is slightly browned

4.       Add the mushroom and stir.

5.       Pour in the tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes

6.       Season it with spices and add some salt (if it tastes fine without the salt then omit it)

7.       After a few minutes, let the spinach into the hot tub. Let it simmer.

(if the sauce is not thick enough leave it on the heat a little bit longer. But seriously, the more saucy it is, the better)

ingredients for the red sauce

the hot tub

The Roux/béchamel  or white sauce

(You could make the white sauce only for the top layer, but for me, I put it on EVERY layer)

If you want to make ONLY for the TOP layer, here is what you need

2 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoon of flour

1 cup of milk

1) On a stove, put the butter in a saucepan and add flour to it.

2) Add milk and stir.

3) Add the flour and continue stirring.

Mind you that the roux thickens really quickly so don’t leave it unattended(Note to self)

As it starts to thicken, turn off the heat.

If you’re like me, white sauce biggest fan, follow the same direction using the initial measurements.=D

If it’s too thick add more milk, if it’s too thin add more butter and flour.

Putting it all together

White sauce,red sauce, lasagna noodle,cheese and breadcrumbs

1.       Layer the bottom of a big casserole dish with the red sauce.

2.       Arrange the lasagna noodle on top of it.

3.       Cover it with red sauce then white sauce and then half cup of cheese.

4.       Repeat that step.(I can only make two layers in my dish)

5.       On the top most layer, after putting on the cheese, cover the top with breadcrumbs.

6.       Throw the baby in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour and dig in!

The arranged lasagna noodles

the red sauce

white sauce and cheese

breadcrumbs at the very top

Hot from the oven

side view=D

To be honest, for mine, I didn’t layer the bottom of the dish with sauce. That tip was given by my beloved Trisha. She said that it’ll help make the bottom pasta more soft and easier to lift..I didn’t use enough sauce in mine so my lasagna was delish nonetheless yet a bit chewy. Pasta should melt in your mouth along with the cheese. Lesson learnt .MORE SAUCE! The amount of white sauce I made this time is different from the previous attempt. Since the consistency differ everytime, feel free to make more if you don’t have enough. Seriously, you’ll never have more than enough. It’s super yummy. The fact that it has flour in it makes the lasagna more erm..presentable. Lasagnas are yummy and can be messy.(or that could only be for me, I'll 20 this year and I’m still a messy eater. there. confession, done!) anyways,the flour makes it look neater in a way.

The other thing is, I’m not sure the white sauce is called béchamel or roux. I googled it and found out that both are almost the same. To make it easier, just call it white sauce.=)

There you go!Have fun making lasagna. Add capsicum or any thing you like in it.If you’re an artist,the pot is your canvas.(okay lame, I know)

Btw am super excited for Yanni Voices live in Montreal!Just bought the ticket yesterday.So Alhamdulillah. Can’t wait!Here one of my favourites..(i don't speak German btw)

So till then.Salut

Love,

Anggerik