Fabulous Lasagna

We had a farmer’s market dinner that was wonderful. Pixie Tangerines are in the market and are delicious. We made a delicious salad from The Zuni Café Cookbook called: Mixed Lettuces With Mandarins, Hazelnuts, & Hazelnut Vinaigrette. We added shaved Manchego Cheese to the salad. We really liked it!

Actor John Pleshette likes to cook. We see him all the time at the farmer’s market, and have seen him in several plays. He also sends out recipes. He sent us a recipe for Spinach And Burratta Lasagna. This to us was unique we never have baked with burrata cheese. We decided to make it. When we went to the market, we saw that David the Mushroom purveyor had morels. Cathy decided to enhance the recipe with morels that she first sautéed in butter. It worked. The dish was delicious. We will make it again. Big shout-out to John P.

Spinach And Burratta Lasagna
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1pound of dried lasagna
2 medium leeks
2 bunches of spinach
1 pound of burratta
1/2 cup of fresh-grated parmesan cheese
chives

pre-heat oven to 400

bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add a splash of oil. drop in the lasagna and boil 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the sheets from sticking to each other. When lasagna is still a bit underdone, drain and lay on a tea towel to dry.

Trim root ends and dark green leaves from leeks. Split lengthwise and rinse under running water. chop into one-inch pieces.

Dump the spinach in a sinkful of water. trim off stems and drain leaves in a colander.

Melt 4 tbsps of butter in a large saucepan. add leeks and cook over low heat for a few minutes until softened but not browned.

Raise heat. Add the spinach a handful at a time, turning with tongs. Cook until wilted but still green. Salt and pepper. Remove with tongs and drain in a strainer and squeeze gently to remove excess liquid.

Rub the inside of an au gratin dish with butter. Put a layer of spinach on the bottom. Slice burratta and using your fingers, top the spinach with thumbnail-size pieces. lay a sheet of lasagna on top. Sprinkle with parmesan.

Continue to stack the spinach, burratta, lasagna and parmesan until you end up with about four layers. You may need to make two stacks, side by side. Top final layer with lasagna. Dot with burratta, sprinkle with parmesan and place in the oven.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese bubbles and the lasagna is slightly browned.

Garnish with chopped chives and serve.

Serves 4


Mixed Lettuces With Mandarins, Hazelnuts, & Hazelnut Vinaigrette
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From the Zuni Café Cookbook

Use silky young lettuces, by themselves or mixed with endive or arugula. Fragrant mandarins come into season in December, and are refreshing and beauti¬ful in salads. They will taste best in this salad if they are at room temperature or just cool, not cold. Frangelico is a hazelnut liqueur that perfumes the salad as the alcohol releases its sweet, nutty scent. For a toastier flavor, substitute a few drops of hazelnut oil. A beautiful variation on this salad consists of arugula, blood oranges, slivered fennel, and toasted almonds mixed with sherry vinaigrette, per¬fumed with Arnaretto, Cointreau, or Grand Marnier. Another joins endive,fnsee, tangelos, and pistachios with coriander-scented vinaigrette, garnished with a driz¬zle of creme fraiche. The combination of satiny, scraggly, tart, nutty, crunchy, and creamy ends up being elegant.

This salad is good before or after a main course, particularly one featuring game birds or lamb.

for 4 servings:
About 24 hazelnuts {3/4 ounce, or a scant 1/4 cup)
2 to 3 mandarins {about 8 ounces}
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
A splash of Frangelico liqueur or hazelnut oil
4 to 5 ounces mixed young lettuces,carefully washed and dried

Preheat the oven to 325°.

Roast the hazelnuts on a small baking sheet until the skins darken and begin to split, 10 to 15 minutes. While they are still hot, bundle them in a towel beanbag-style, then scrunch and massage them to rub off most of their skins. Pick the nuts from the chaff and chop them coarsely.

Slice both ends off each mandarin, cutting just deeply enough to expose the juicy flesh. Setting the fruit on end, use a paring knife to carve away the skin and pith in a series of smooth, arcing strokes from top to bottom, rotating the mandarin a little with each stroke as you work your way around the sphere. {Most of us mis¬judge and miss a little pith on the first go-round, but this is easy to trim once you've removed the bulky skin.) Slice the mandarins evenly into i/4-inch-thick pinwheels. Collect the slices and juice on a plate.

Combine the oil, vinegar, Frangelico or hazelnut oil trickle of juice from the mandarins, and salt to taste! Dip a lettuce leaf in the dressing, taste, and cor¬rect. Spoon a little of the vinaigrette over the mandarin slices. Tilt the plate to distribute it.

Drizzle and toss the lettuces with enough vinaigrette to coat them lightly but evenly. Taste. Toss in the hazelnuts, then distribute most of the leaves among individual plates. Slide and tuck the sliced mandarins among the leaves, then scat¬ter with the remaining leaves and the hazelnuts. Drizzle the vinaigrette from the mandarin plate over the salads.