Friday, April 8, 2011

New Food Friday - Caprese Lasagna

I've decided to try something new. Every Friday I'm going to try a new recipe and let you know how it is. At least that's what I'm going to attempt to keep up with every week. So today, I decided to try a Caprese Lasagna from Rachel Ray. It was absolutely fabulous!


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
A few grates of fresh nutmeg (I left this out because I didn't have any)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Half a bunch basil, chopped (about 30 leaves)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese


Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Place a large saucepan over medium-heat and melt the butter. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk and chicken stock into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble. Add the nutmeg, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish and laying three lasagna noodles over the sauce. Top the noodles with about a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and about a third of the shredded cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.


Cover the pan with foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes. Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. When ready to serve, top with the remaining chopped basil leaves.


The only complaint I have is that I don't think there was quite enough sauce. I'll definitely make more next time. But all in all, it was a success. Will definitely make this again. I couldn't find fresh basil leaves anywhere so I ended up buying a basil plant from Fresh Market for $2.99. It is awesome!

3 comments:

  1. YUUUUMMMMYYY!! You should just come to my house every friday and cook your new stuff. =) haha. I'll take the pics for u. I am def gonna test this dish out!

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  2. We definitely should get together more on Fridays and cook together. That would be a blast!

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  3. Love new recipes, thanks for sharing this one. I'll try it sometime for sure!

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