Easter Lasagna

In a country in which 98% of the inhabitants claim to be Catholic, it goes without saying that Easter is some what of a big deal. As with every other major religious holiday in Italy, there is a state decree stating that every citizen must gain 5kg by the time they return to work the following Tuesday. Italians do not joke when it comes to holidays. Similar to Christmas, day following Easter is a day off from work as well. For lack of a better name, they dubbed it Pasquetta, or, “Little Easter”. After all, when one thinks about the quantity of food that is consumed the day which honors that dramatic moment in our Lord’s life, an extra day of rest is often needed to focus on the body’s digestive process. In Italy, work somehow always greatly interferes with the digestive functions of the human body, and that it is why is absolutely must be avoided in the days immediately following a holiday.

I am not here to discuss Easter, nor the day after Easter. I am dedicating this entry to the first time I have hosted a major holiday in my home, massive meal and all. I decided that I would make lasagna. In case you don’t know, lasagna is a layer cake of a sauce or vegetable of your choice, cheese, with thin sheets of pasta in between. Usually, you can buy the pre-made sheets of pasta in the supermarket. Or, if you’re serious like me, you go at it hardcore and make the pasta yourself, from scratch. I know most of you are thinking that is crazy. How could one possibly make pasta? With all of its intricate shapes and holes, wouldn’t it require an artistic skill of some sort? Absolutely not, in fact, pasta is one of the easiest things to make.

First, go out and buy a bag of flour and some fresh eggs. The general rule is 100 grams per person, and one egg per 100 grams of flour. Now, remember, Italians do not cook using scales and measuring cups. They do everything by eye. If you read recipes in Italians, you will often see terms such as “a half of glass of water” or “a bit of salt” and even “a handful of basil”. Italian cook books usually do not contain specific measurements. After all, your ingredients, elevation above sea level, and water hardness can vary greatly depending on where you are, so it is best to keep tasting your concoction to assure things are going according to plan.

Dump the desired amount of flour into a bowl. There were to be 5 hearty-appetited people at lunch, so I put about two-thirds of a 1 kg bag. The real pros put it right on the table, but if you’re inexperienced like me, that can be a real mess. Use the bowl. Next, take your finger to make a “hole” in the middle of the mountain of flour. Once you are satisfied with the dimensions of your hole, crack the eggs and throw them in one by one. Then, use your finger the whip the eggs so that some flour slowly falls into the hole, so that the flour and eggs begin to have a dough-like consistency. For those of you who do not want to be bothered with grimy hardened egg and flour caked on your fingernails for the next ten days, use a sturdy wooden spoon. Add a bit of water and salt, until the concoction becomes a big lump of yellow pizza dough. Once it becomes like this, keep kneading it for a little while, then let it sit for a half hour or so. It cannot be to hard, as you’ll need to be able to work with it. It needs to be have a consistency somewhere between soft pizza dough and clay. At this point, I decided that my lasagna was going to contain zucchini and eggplant. I went ahead and sliced the zucchini and eggplant into very small pieces and let them simmer in separate frying pans with some olive oil, garlic, and onion. Throw in a bit of salt and keep tasting them until you think they are good. They will need to cook for at least a half hour, I’d say. At this point, you might as well cut up some fresh mozzarella (please, none of that Polly O chemical stuff) and grate your parmigiano cheese and put it aside. Once you have that under control, go back to your lump of yellow dough and smell it. Doesn’t it smell good? Good, now, rip it into smaller lumps and flatten it out with a sturdy rolling pin so it becomes a massive thin sheet. You need to size the lumps and sheets correctly, based on the size of the plan in which you will cook the lasagna. You can always cut it after. Once you create sheets thin enough and sized correctly, you can then proceed to put them somewhere to dry out a bit. Make sure you coat them with flour so that they don’t stick to whatever you rest them on. Let them sit for about another 15 minutes, as you do not want mush lasagna. This will probably be necessary anyway, as working each lump into a useable sheet of pasta will take some time (unless you have one of those very expensive pasta machines). Now comes the easy part. Smear some oil on the bottom of your pan and throw down the first layer of pasta, preferably the hardest, thickest one. That didn’t sound nice. Anyway, on each layer, spread some béchamel sauce. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Béchamel sauce is quite easy to make, and even easier to mess up. Put some whole milk into a small sauce pan and add some butter and flour until it gets to a thick liquid consistency. Too much flour will make it doughy, and too little will make it watery. If you don’t think you can handle it, simply go to the supermarket and purchase a ready made carton. Ok, back to the lasagna. Spread the béchamel sauce around your layer just so it is completely covered with a thin coating. Get the sides good, as they can get too crusty while cooking. Add your vegetables (or you tomato sauce), making sure that you’ve put enough aside to last for all 4 layers, as it was in my case. Slap down the next layer and repeat. I prefer to cover the top layer with only cheese and béchamel, although other schools of thought and lasagna theorists prefer to add the sauce as well. Do whatever you like. When you’ve completed at least 3 filled layers, stick it in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius and let it cook for about 40 minutes, checking it often. When you determine that it is finished cooking, let it sit for another 15 to 20 minutes outside of the oven, or else you risk eating lasagna soup. Buon appettito!