Recipes: February 2009 Archives

Hard to believe but it'd been years (years!) since either of us had eaten, let alone crafted, a hot lasagna. Something about boiling those flat noodles and stuffing them with plain jane veggies seems a) mundane and b) inappropriate for young dudes to make, like wearing your mom's stockings when she's not home or something.

But when we had a recent Sunday where we had nothing to do but hit the farmer's market and tinker with sauces, and some vegan house guests coming for dinner, we dived hard into mommy territory. The end result was a two layer sauce-pan just edgy enough while still having that piping hot, comfort going on. First came a creamy Italian wedding bean layer, somewhere between pesto and ricotta, by subbing in some thick tahini for the cheese. Next came more pasta and all the veggies stacked like cake icing.

Sesame-Pesto
(Makes about 2 cups)

2 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbs. tahini sauce
black pepper and salt to taste

1. Blanche your basil to keep it looking green: Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and fill a large bowl with ice water. Dunk the bail in boiling water for 5 seconds, immediately fishing it out with tongs. Cool in ice bath and let sit for 1 minute. Remove and set aside in your oil.

2. In a small sauté pan on medium heat, toast your pine nuts. Be mindful, these suckers burn quickly, so toss them in the pan every 30 seconds until they start to turn brown. Remove from heat and let cool.

3. In a food processor, or using a handheld mixer, blend basil, oil and nuts. Add tahini and a tablespoon of water if needed to help blend. You want a creamy consistency. Season as you go.

E-Z Marinara

1 Tbs. fennel seeds
1 red onion, peeled and diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
28 oz. can whole tomatoes in sauce
15 oz. tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by toasting your aromatics. Place a large pot on high heat and add your fennel seeds with diced onion, minced garlic. Let toast for 2-3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to keep from sticking. Once slightly brown add olive oil and toss.

2. Add red wine and let reduce by about half for about 8 minutes.

3. Strain your sauce so you can chop the tomatoes. Add them too and lower heat. Let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Hot Lasagna

1 eggplant
2 carrots
2 red bell peppers
4 zucchini
3 Tbs olive oil
12 lasagna pasta noodles
1 can white beans
6-8 sun-dried tomato pieces
1 Tbs. paprika
2 heads broccoli

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Peel the eggplant to remove purple skin and slice into 1-centimeter round slices. Slice the carrots and zucchini on a bias, about as thin as the eggplant. De-seed your peppers and slice into long strips about 1-inch wide. Toss all the veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. Grease up a couple roasting dishes and add the veggies. Roast in oven for 20 minutes or until just starting to brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

4. Now cook your pasta so you can assemble the lasagna. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil, add a teaspoon of olive oil and drop in pasta, gently folding it into the water as it softens. Then make an ice bath for shocking it once its cooked. You're gonna wanna go light so the noodles are al dente: cook about 8 minutes. Remove, strain and drop in ice water. Let sit one minute then remove.

5. Par-boil your broccoli by boiling a second pot of salted water and dunking heads for 2-3 minutes. Remove and sit in same ice bath to cool. Once cool, chop up florets into a fine powder of broccoli, tossing the stems.

6. Grease, with olive oil, another 8 x 11 roasting pan. Place first of three pasta noodle layers, four should fit perfectly.

7. Make bean mixture for your first lasagna layer: In a bowl, combine strained white beans and chopped sun-dried tomato. Toss with more olive oil and paprika. Spoon the whole bean mix and spread evenly. Top with the sesame pesto and broccoli.

8. Lay your second layer of pasta noodles. Top that with a thin layer of marinara sauce. Then top with the rest of the veggies: eggplant, zukes, carrots and bell peppers.

9. Top it with the third layer of noodles and the rest of the sauce, evenly distributed. Place foil on the top of the pan and slide in the oven on 400 degrees for another 20 minutes. Remove and eat. Phew!

Beverage: Craftsman's Cabarnale (brewed with grape must)
Soundtrack: The Cure's "Hot! Hot! Hot!"

This weekend, on a testosterone-heavy desert camping sojourn, our friend Spencer enlightened us regarding a high-school epiphany he once had: that Salsa Verde Doritos and a 20-ounce Coca-Cola are the "perfect combination" of flavors.

We're still not entirely sure what this means. But the comment did inspire us, when perusing the produce aisle of the Yucca Valley Vons, to embark on our own salsa verde fantasy. We bought a bag of ripe tomatillos, just starting to poke through their green husks, and lugged them out to the Joshua Tree desert clubhouse we rented for the weekend. Once properly drunk and hungry we gave these suckers a spin on the grill.

Tossed with good olive oil and grilled until they started popping, we blended our tomatillos with blackened peppers and onion and a touch of blood orange juice. The result was a pleasantly familiar tart sauce somewhere between salsa and roasted green chile. We slathered the stuff on corn chips and ladled it onto steaming campfire beans. Having nothing close to corn syrup in our possession we tried our salsa verde instead with a couple finer beverages... Scotch. One-year-aged Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere. And Tequila reposado from a bottle shaped like a Tommy gun.

8-10 tomatillos
2 Pasilla peppers
1 red onion
1 jalapeno
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 bunch cilantro (about 1 cup)
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 blood orange

1. Crank your outdoor grill to high.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine tomatillos, peppers, onion and jalapenos and toss well with olive oil. Once grill is hot, throw all the veggies on and close the lid. Check every 3-4 minutes and turn as needed.

3. Remove tomatillos one by one as they burst over the heat. Make sure to scoop them, up, gently, before they lose their juice. Remove the rest of your veggies as they finish roasting and throw everything back into the mixing bowl.

4. Blend everything together with a handheld mixer or in a cuisinart. Add raw garlic, cilantro, fresh juice from a blood orange (one lime works too) and more salt if needed. Continue pulsing until smooth, with no chunks. Serve with chips.

Beverage: Jolly Pumpkin's Bam Biere
Soundtrack: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Green Mind"