LOADED LASAGNA

When you only make lasagna about once a year, you've got to do it right. It isn't the time for gluten free noodles or "lite" cheese. What it is time for is homemade noodles and ricotta made from your farm-fresh whole raw milk.

HOMEMADE RICOTTA CHEESE

8 cups organic whole milk

4 cups organic cream

2 tsp sea salt

6 Tbsp organic lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

Method: Bring the milk, cream and salt to a full boil in pot set over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour milk into a sieve lined with cheese cloth and drain until you achieve the consistency you like.

 EGG PASTA

2 cups organic unbleached flour

1 cup organic whole wheat flour

3 large organic eggs

3 tsp ev olive oil

a bit of water as necessary

Method: Combine the flour and the salt in a bowl, make a well in the middle, and add the egg and olive oil. Using your fingers, lightly work in the egg. When it is well combined, press the mixture to form dough. Add more water if necessary at this point. Turn it out onto a floured counter and begin to knead for about 5-10 minutes, until it feels smooth and supple. Put it in a bowl and cover with a plate so it can rest for at least half an hour before rolling it out with a pasta machine.

BEEF LASAGNA

1 batch homemade ricotta

1 batch homemade pasta

1 1/2 jars organic pasta sauce, or homemade - 

make it a bit watery because noodles need to soak up some liquid

1 1/2 large blocks organic mozzarella, grated

2 pounds organic grass-fed ground beef

1 organic onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 cups cooked greens -

(I used frozen lamb's quarters but spinach or chard works well too)

10 organic mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp ev olive oil

Method: Preheat oven to 350*. Heat a large cast iron pan over medium heat. Drizzle with some olive oil and sauce the onion, beef and mushrooms until the meat is no longer pink. 

Spread some tomato sauce onto the bottom of a large roasting pan. Place 3 strips of lasagna noodles in bottom of pan, spread with sauce, sprinkle with some chopped greens, beef mixture, ricotta, and cheese. Repeat two more times. Final layer is just noodles, sauce and mozzarella. Sprinkle with ground pepper and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before cutting.

PRINT RECIPE

FIRST HARVEST

 I quietly celebrated Lughnasad today by harvesting garlic, and some of our potatoes and beets for the first time.  Lughnasad is the first of three ancient Celtic harvest celebrations.  In Irish Gaelic, the word for August is lunasa named after the God Lugh who is associated with grain in Celtic mythology.

After an unusually rainy spring, we are relieved to discover the crops are surviving and are nourishing us despite the challenges they have faced.  Digging up potatoes is always such fun because you never know what lies beneath.  Scott managed to grow some very fine potatoes this year.  One plant gave us 9 spuds!  The technique of mounding the soil up the stem of the plant throughout the growing season really does increase the plant's production.    I harvested some nice bulbs of garlic as well, but we also managed to grow some duds as well.  A quarter of the bed was shaded by a tall spruce tree which we neglected to prune.  

The beets and peas are as fine as any I've ever bought at the Farmer's Market, which is a huge relief because I missed the market this Saturday.  It is strange to realize that I don't need to buy much there at this time of year because we have so much growing right in our backyard.  We have been eating salad pretty much every night and hardly even make a dent in the crop.  The chard was desperately calling out to be eaten so I made a chard and mushroom lasagna last night.  It truly was a homegrown meal.  The lasagna was made with a white sauce that I prepared with our very own goat milk.  Luckily we had lots of milk gathering in the fridge from our morning milkings because I also had to make fresh ricotta cheese.  What an easy cheese to make!  I remembered reading about the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for ricotta cheese on Gwynth Paltrow's blog GOOP so I googled it up (recipe here)and had it made in no time - which is good because I don't have much of that these days.......

The braised chard, drained, finely chopped and mixed in with homemade goat cheese ricotta.