Chef it up, yo!

This is the recipe I promised to many peeps at Holly & Jeff’s Baby Shower. What an awesome baby shower it was! I never thought I would say that about ANY baby shower (I don’t really like them very much, you see), but this was FUN. I highly recommend doing the “men can come too” thing if you ever throw one. Can you believe that all three baby shower games were won by men???

So this lasagna was a huge hit…a wild success! I even witnessed a fussy, ketchup-drowning, fungi-hater eat a serving and then go back for seconds! Of course once he found the first mushroom, his fungus-phobia took over and he bailed on it. (Sorry Bobby, I should have told you about the mushrooms.) Anyway, this does take some time to make – especially if you are a crazy DIY’er and roast the garlic and red peppers yourself – but when you wrap your tastebuds around this you will understand how worth the time spent was. Don’t forget it makes tons, so you will get a lot of mileage out of it…freeze it up in individual servings and boom, a guaranteed night off from cooking! But why you would ever want a night off from cooking is completely beyond me…

Thanks to Epicurious.com and Bon Appétit for laying out the foundation for this masterpiece!

Sweet Pea and Artichoke Lasagna

Makes 10 to 12 servings

• 16 – 18 ounces of canned artichoke hearts (preferably Goya brand found in Spanish section of food store – label says Alcachofas)
• 1 ½ cups whipping cream, divided
• 1/4 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 (15-ounce) containers whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1 1-pound bag frozen petite peas, thawed
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (8- to 9-ounce) package no-boil lasagna noodles (12 noodles)
• 4 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese (about 1 pound)
• 1 small head of fresh roasted garlic
• ½ cup of minced, fresh roasted red peppers
• ¾ cup of roughly chopped, sautéed button mushrooms (or cremini)

Prepare the roasted red peppers, garlic and mushrooms according to above. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with oil. Mix artichokes, 1/2 cup cream, red peppers, garlic, mushrooms and basil in medium bowl until well-blended. Purée remaining 1 cup cream, ricotta, and next 4 ingredients (peas, parmesan cheese, eggs and salt) in food processor.

Spread 1 cup ricotta mixture over bottom of prepared baking dish. Arrange 4 noodles in single layer over ricotta, breaking noodles as needed to cover. Spread half of artichoke mixture over. Spread 2 1/2 cups ricotta mixture over artichokes. Sprinkle 1 cup mozzarella cheese over. Repeat with 4 noodles, artichoke mixture, 2 1/2 cups ricotta mixture, and 1 cup mozzarella.

Top with 4 noodles. Spread remaining ricotta mixture over, then sprinkle remaining 2 cups mozzarella over. Tent with foil, sealing edges.

Bake lasagna 30 minutes. Remove foil; continue baking until bubbling at edges and brown on top, about 25 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

(click on images to enlarge)

Methane Meter boasts:

Download or print recipe here:
Sweet Pea & Artichoke Lasagna Recipe (PDF 17.1 KB)

The original recipe can be found at Epicurious.com or in Bon Appetit magazine.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Holidays, Vegetarian, pasta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.