Lasagna with Prosciutto and Carrot Cake

RUN.

Seems a prudent response to the times. It’s felt so good to hit the pavement, to rattle off the cobwebs in the connective tissue after taking half the year off for chemo. I used to think of exercise like a chore, and now it feels like a gift. To have the health to move. Superfeet gifted these amazing insoles and oh what a difference a little support makes for the ache-footed runner.

With running comes carb-loading. Or at least carb guiltlessness. There’s lasagna and there’s Lasagna. This dish was a stressful origami, a 3-D chutes and ladders of meat frosting. But wow, so delicious and so impressive to plate and serve.

Lasagna with Prosciutto

Adapted from Food and Wine

PASTA SHEETS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 to 2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing pans

Fine sea salt, for salting water

LASAGNA FILLING

6 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, broken into large chunks (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 pound or 2 cups cottage cheese

1 ¼ cups thinly sliced prosciutto, finely chopped

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Fine sea salt, to taste

SPINACH SAUCE

5 ounces fresh baby spinach (about 5 cups)

1/2 cup water, plus more

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more for salting water

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Make the pasta sheets

Mix flour, eggs, egg yolks, 1 tablespoon water, and oil on a countertop by making a mound of the flour and adding the wet ingredients little by little until mixture is workable. Turn dough out onto a clean work surface. Shape into a ball, and knead until smooth, about 3 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature at least 1 hours and 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Set rollers of a pasta machine on widest setting. Unwrap dough, and cut in half. Rewrap one dough half. Use a rolling pin or your hands, flatten unwrapped dough portion to 1/3-inch thickness. Roll dough through pasta machine, flouring dough as needed to prevent sticking. Fold dough in half crosswise; reroll through pasta machine. Continue folding dough in half crosswise and rerolling until it is as wide as the pasta rollers (5 to 6 inches), 1 or 2 times. Trim dough as needed to create straight sides. Once width is reached, run dough sheet through widest setting once more to ensure even thickness of dough. Reduce width of rollers one setting, and roll dough through rollers. Measure dough length, and trim to 32 inches, reserving scraps. Continue rerolling dough (do not refold) through pasta machine, reducing width of rollers one setting at a time and trimming to 32 inches between settings, until dough is the thickness of 3 pieces of paper and dough sheet weighs approximately 6 ounces. Trim pasta sheet into a 32- x 5-inch rectangle. Cover pasta sheet and scraps with plastic wrap or a towel. Repeat process with remaining dough half to form 2 (32- x 5-inch) sheets of pasta and about 6 ounces of dough scraps. 

Bring a large pot of water to boil, and salt it. Add 1 pasta sheet to boiling water; cook 1 minute. Using a spider and tongs, gently transfer pasta to a baking sheet generously coated with oil. Coat pasta generously all over with oil to prevent sticking; fold in half crosswise. Repeat process using remaining pasta sheet. Set aside.

Make the lasagna filling

Process Parmigiano-Reggiano chunks in a food processor until finely ground into small crumbles, about 30 seconds. Transfer half of the cheese (about 3/4 cup) to a bowl, and reserve for finishing lasagna. Add cottage cheese, prosciutto, cream, and rosemary to food processor; pulse until well combined and prosciutto is very finely chopped, about 10 pulses. Season with salt to taste. Transfer filling to a large piping bag with a 3/4-inch hole snipped in the tip.

Assemble the lasagna

Coat a 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with oil. Unfold pasta sheets, and arrange them parallel, overlapping them to create a 9-inch-wide layer of pasta. Line the bottom and two long sides of the loaf pan with the pasta, allowing a 5-inch overhang on one side and the remaining long ends on the other.

Pipe a 1 1/4-inch-thick line of filling along the long pan side with the long ends of the pasta. Pipe a second line of filling parallel to the first, leaving 1/2 inch space on each side of the second line. Carefully fold the long overhanging pasta sheets up and over filling; press the pasta down to hug sides of filling. (This creates 2 long pockets of filling.) Pipe 2 lines of filling in the “trenches” of the pasta. Fold the longer pasta sheets back up and over the filling; gently press down to smooth.

Repeat once for a total of 4 layers of filling. Fold the 5-inch pasta overhang up and over to seal the lasagna. Trim pasta sheets along upper lip of loaf pan. Wrap loaf pan in plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly onto lasagna surface. Chill until set, at least 6 hours or up to 24 hours.

Make the spinach sauce

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil, and salt it. Add spinach; cook, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 2 minutes. Using a spider, transfer spinach to a large bowl of ice water. Let cool 2 minutes. Drain and squeeze excess moisture from spinach. Transfer spinach to a blender; add 1/2 cup water. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds, adding up to an additional 1/3 cup water, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed to thin sauce to consistency of heavy cream. Transfer mixture to a small saucepan. Stir in oil and salt. Keep warm over low, stirring often, until ready to use.

Bake the lasagna

Preheat oven to 500°F. Run a small offset spatula around edges of lasagna to loosen from pan. Unmold lasagna, and invert onto a cutting board;

Cut crosswise into 6 (1 1/2-inch-wide) slices. Arrange lasagna slices, cut sides up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving at least 1 inch between slices. Brush tops and sides of slices evenly with oil. Sprinkle slices with reserved Parmigiano-Reggiano crumbles (about 2 tablespoons per slice).

Bake in preheated oven until slices are heated through and edges are puffy and golden brown, 6 to 10 minutes.

Spoon 2 tablespoons spinach sauce onto each of 6 plates; tilt each plate in a circular motion to spread sauce in a thin, even layer. (Reserve remaining sauce for another use.) Place 1 lasagna slice on each plate. Serve immediately.

How about a carrot cake for dessert? From the Portland Bake This Day kitchen is this delicious reward.

“STOP TALKING TO ME!”  CARROT CAKE 

Adapted from Ina Garten

This carrot cake and I are friends in the quarantine.  Afterall, despite a motherload of sugar, she boasts an entire pound of carrots and a full cup of walnuts in all their carotene and poly unsaturated glory! AND, she talks. For an extrovert,  hearing your carrot cake invite you for tea each afternoon of quarantine is just being a caring and sensitive visitor and YES, I’ve been alone too long.

Cake ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 T Bourbon

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 T cinnamon

2 teas baking soda

½ teas kosher salt

1 pound carrots, hand grated

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

Frosting:

6 ounces Marscarpone cheese, room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 teas Bourbon

2 Ts heavy cream

¼ teas kosher salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease two 9-inch cake pans, lining the bottoms with parchment paper, then dust with flour.

In your mixer bowl, beat the sugar, oil, and eggs until creamy, then stir in the bourbon.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low, add this to the egg/sugar mixture.

In a medium bowl, mix the carrots, raisins and walnuts with 1 T of flour.

Then fold this mixture into your batter.

Divide the batter between the two pans and slip into the oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Then lower the oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

After a 10-minute rest, turn out on a baking rack and cool completely.

For the frosting, mix the cheeses, powdered sugar, cream, bourbon and salt on medium with the paddle attachment until it is light and fluffy.

To assemble on your plate, turn one layer rounded size down and spread half the frosting on the top only, not the sides. Repeat with the second layer rounded side up.

You can sprinkle additional chopped walnuts on the top if desired.

Hyperlinked products were gifted.