Squash and Broccoli Lasagna

Squash & Broccoli Lasagna with Béchamel

At the end of my produce share, and after Christmas, I find my refrigerator bursting with odds-and-ends. So, I put out a request for help what to do with a mish-mash of broccoli, heavy cream, butter,  acorn squash, cream cheese, shallots, and garlic. Thanks to my mother-in-law-in-law (is that even a thing? My sister's mother-in-law. Lets just say friend) Mo, she steered me in the lasagna direction. All I can say is- good job, Mo! So I google "squash lasagna" and made this. Wouldn't ya know it- I have no idea where that recipe is anymore. So I am going to have to improvise, although this recipes from the NY Times sounds close enough to me. Hopefully it works!

 

 

What-To-Get

1 acorn squash

3 large minced shallots 

1 minced garlic clove

3 cups broccoli floretts

1/2 package lasagna noodles

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups heavy cream  or milk or half-and-half

4 oz cream cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

4 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (1 cup) 

How-To-Do

1. Roast the squash: Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half and remove seeds. Brush the insides with olive oil and salt and pepper. Place cut-side down in a rimmed baking dish and fill with 1-inch of water. Roast in oven 45 minutes - 1 hour or until tender when pierced with fork. Allow to cool and remove skin and cut into 1-inch chunks.

2. Make the béchamel: Heat the remaining oil over medium heat in a heavy medium saucepan. Add the shallot and garlic and cook, stirring, until it has softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and bubbling, but not browned. It should have the texture of wet sand. Whisk in the cream all at once and bring to a simmer, whisking all the while, until the mixture begins to thicken. Add cream cheese until melted. Turn the heat to very low and simmer, stirring often with a whisk and scraping the bottom and edges of the pan with a rubber spatula, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce is thick. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

3. Boil noodles & broccoli: In a large pot of salted boiling water fitted with a basket steamer, add broccoli and blanch for no more than 3 minutes, until bright green.  remove broccoli and steamer basket. Add lasagna noodles and cook 2 minutes short of package directions. Drain.

4. Assemble & bake lasagna: Spread some of the béchamel in a bottom of a 8x8 baking dish, just until the bottom is covered. Lay noodles across and then add squash and broccoli, top with béchamel and parmeasean cheese. Repeat until you tower of lasagna has reached its peak. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until the cheese is melty and bubbly. (It freezes well- make the lasagna and do not bake it. When ready to eat- take out of freezer hours before and bake at 350, over an hour.)

 

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Mini Grilled Cheese n Apple Sammies

(Originally from September 18, 2012)  
It's that time of year again: my favorite food time- fall! What goes better with chilly weather than soup n sandwiches? For this recipe, I used a pie pumpkin from my produce share for the soup and featured the (small) apples in the grilled cheese. Aw, poor apples. you did not have a good growing season, did you? That's ok, I'll slather you with cheese and eat you anyway.

Curried Pumpkin-Apple Soup, directly from Spoonful.com

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• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 large apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 teaspoons mild curry powder
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups solidly packed pumpkin mash or canned pumpkin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1 whole bay leaf
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 to 3 tablespoons honey

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1. Melt the butter in a medium-size soup pot. Stir in the onion, celery, and apple. Partially cover the pot and sauté the ingredients over medium-high heat until the onion is clear, about 8 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and sauté the mixture for another minute. Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth and cook it for 1 minute more.
2. Pour the contents of the pan into a blender or food processor, add the pumpkin, and puree the soup until it's smooth.
3. Pour it all back into the pot, then stir in the remaining chicken broth, the salt, and the bay leaf. Set the soup over medium-high heat and bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
4. After 5 minutes, stir in the heavy cream and 2 tablespoons of honey. Taste the soup, adding more salt or honey if necessary to get the desired balance of sweet and savory. Simmer it for 2 minutes more, remove the soup from the heat, and serve it hot. For a pretty -- and tasty -- touch, garnish each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped chives. Makes 6 servings.

 

Apple and Aged Cheddar Grilled Cheese Recipe, directly from chow.com

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INGREDIENTS

•     1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
•     2 (1/2-inch-thick, 4-1/2-by-2-1/2-inch-long) slices walnut bread
•     1 ounce extra-sharp aged cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
•     3 thin slices crisp, tart apple, such as Granny Smith

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.
2. Once the pan is warm, add one slice of bread, buttered side down, then top with half of the cheese, all of the apple slices, and finally the remaining cheese. Close the sandwich with the second slice of bread, buttered side up.
3. Cook until the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted, about 3 minutes per side.

Tortilla Española

Tortilla Española and Pan con Tomate

Catalonian Cuisine

Or, you can call this the best garbage meal. I had a dozen and a half eggs from an over zealous plan to make Christmas cookies, couple pounds of potatoes from my produce share and left over french bread and random veggies from a NYE party. So what other combination could I possibly make! I learned the art of pan con tomate (or simply bread n' tomatoes) from a small restaurant in the small, medieval town of Rupit, Spain. Most modern tapas restaurnts I've been to do a fancy version where the bread is toasted, or the tomatoes are roasted, etc. However, this Catalonian version uses over ripe tomatoes and stale bread and transforms into an amazing tapa. (I highly recommend visiting Rupit if you ever find yourself in the Barcelona/ Pyrenees region with these folks: www.spanish-trails.com/)

I've  always had problems with egg dishes in the past, especially ones that involve flipping, like omelets or the tortilla española. So when I found this recipe that did not involved and flipping, I was excited but also skeptical. I thought all tortilla españolas needed to be flipped. I was wrong. This dish turned out fantastic and no flipping needed. I will never make tortilla española any other way again! This recipe is adapted from "International Cuisine" by Jenny Macveigh (Delmar, Cengage Learning, Clifton, NY, 2009).

Tortilla Española

Ingredients

3 baking potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick (mandoline slicer works great)
2-3 large shallots, thinly sliced
4 oz roasted red bell pepper, sliced thin
7 eggs
2 tsp pimentón (Spanish Paprika, hot)
salt & pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Heat a oven safe saute pan (like the Le Creuset 3 1/2 qt braiser) over medium-high heat with some olive oil (enough to coat the bottom, and then some). Working in batches, pan fry the potato slices until golden brown, each side. Remove the browned potatoes with a slotted spoon, keeping most of the oil in the pan. Add more oil if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Meanwhile in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until fluffy and stir in the pimentón and red pepper.
4. After all potatoes are browned, remove the potatoes and deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup dry white whine and add the shallots. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat from the stove and add shallots to egg mixture.
6. If there still is oil in the pan, do not add more. Layer the potatoes in the pan by overlapping them in concentric circles, starting at the outside of the pan and working your way in. The potatoes should yield about 3 layers.
7. Pour the egg mixture on top of the potatoes and bake for 10 minutes at 350, and then turn the oven down to 325 and finish baking for 25 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the egg mixture is set. Serve with aioli.

 

Pan con Tomate

Ingredients

1 loaf of stale french bread
1 or 2 ripe tomoates
best quality extra virgin olive oil
parmeasean cheese, optional

Method

Slice the bread on the bias. Cut the tomato in half and rub juices on the bread. Sprinkle with olive oil and cheese. Eat it. Voila! Repeat until full.

Town of Rupit, Spain