This is our traditional Christmas fare. This dish is served simply with a dry red wine , a green salad, and crusty garlic bread.
Linda Durand’s Lasagne á la française
Yield: 32 servings
For the tomato sauce:
1 qt. minced onions (after cooking, ½ are for the second sauce)
½ c. olive oil
8 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped
8 c. Italian plum tomatoes, canned
2 tsp. Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp. thyme and 2 bay leaves)
8 large cloves garlic, puréed
4 pinches saffron threads
1 tsp. dried orange peel
Salt and pepper to taste
The lasagna:
40 to 48 lasagne
A large kettle containing 8-10 quarts of boiling water
1 ½ tsp. salt per quart of water
2 Tbsp. olive oil
For the white-wine onion sauce (béchamel ou velouté aux oignons):
½ the cooked onions from the tomato sauce
1 ½ c. butter
2 c. AP flour
3 to 3 ½ qt. hot liquid (milk plus chicken stock and/or mushroom juices)
1 1/3 c. dry white wine or dry white French Vermouth
Salt and pepper to taste
For assembling the lasagna:
An oiled baking dish, 2 inches deep
The cooked lasagna
The white-wine onion sauce
About 2 qt. well-seasoned cooked green vegetables (broccoli and spinach)
About 1 qt. grated cheese (a mixture of Parmesan, Swiss, and Provolone)
2 to 3 qt. cooked diced chicken
2 qt. diced mushrooms, fresh, sautéed in butter and seasoned
1 qt. ricotta cheese
The tomato sauce
The tomato sauce. Cook the onions and oil in a covered saucepan, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned – 6-8 minutes. (Remove half the onions and reserve for later.) Stir in the fresh tomatoes, cover, and cook slowly several minutes. Drain the canned tomatoes and sieve about 1 qt. of the pulp into the fresh tomatoes. Stir in the herbs, garlic, saffron, orange peel, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer slowly, partially covered, for 30 minutes at least, adding a little juice from the canned tomatoes if the sauce becomes too thick. While sauce is simmering, prepare the rest of the ingredients.
The white-wine onion sauce. Blend the onions with the butter in a saucepan over moderate heat. When butter is bubbling, blend in the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes without browning the flour at all. Remove from heat. When mixture has stopped bubbling, pour in two thirds of the hot liquid all at once, blending vigorously with a wire whip. Blend in more, leaving about 2 cups for later. Beat in the wine, and set over moderately high heat, stirring, until sauce comes to the boil. Thin out, if necessary, with the remaining liquid; sauce should be thick enough to coat a spoon fairly heavily. Boil, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 4 to 5 minutes; beat in salt and pepper to taste. (If not used immediately, keep over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. If done in advance, clean sauce off sides of pan and float a film of milk over the surface to keep a skin from forming; beat over heat to liquefy before using, and thin out with droplets of milk if sauce seems too thick.)
Boiling the lasagna. Drop lasagna into boiling water, add salt and olive oil, and boil slowly, uncovered, until lasagna is just tender but still has a slight texture, chewiness or al dente, when you cut off a sliver and bite into it.
Assembling the lasagna. Line bottom of oiled baking dish with a layer of lasagna. Spread white-wine onion sauce over the lasagna. Spread with half the green vegetables, sprinkle with grated cheese, half the meat, and half the mushrooms. Spread over this a few spoonfuls of the white sauce. Cover with another layer of lasagna, and spread over it the rest of the green vegetables, more cheese, the remaining meat, and mushrooms. Spread on a final layer of white sauce, cover this with ricotta cheese, and finish with a covering of lasagna. Trim or tuck down protruding ends of lasagna. Mask top of lasagna with remaining white sauce, covering as much as you can. Spoon the tomato sauce unevenly over the surface, leaving no lasagne exposed. Sprinkle grated cheese over all, using 2 cups.
Baking and serving. Bake at 400° F. until dish is bubbling hot and top of cheese has browned nicely. Serve as soon as possible, to preserve the fresh green of the vegetables and the texture of the meat. Cut into serving portions before freezing.