Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Lady of the Night Lasagna Rolls

Violet Baudelaire: Dinner is served. Puttanesca.
Count Olaf: What did you call me?
Klaus Baudelaire: It's pasta... Pasta Puttanesca.

Pasta Puttanesca. According to my endless internet searching Spaghetti alla puttanesca literally translates to "whore's spaghetti." Yeah, a little harsh but the theory is that these working girl's rarely have time to shop and the only things they have in the cupboards are basic Italian staples: Spaghetti, olives, tomatoes, anchovies, capers, chili peppers & garlic. Mix those all together and what do you have? Puttanesca

Now I never realized I loved the combination of said ingredients until I went to the new-ish Logan Square spot Revolution Brewing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this place! I always seem to get the Puttanesca Pizza. A nice crispy crust covered in mozzarella, onions, anchovies, olives, capers and tomato sauce. It is heaven. After a recent trip there, I realized I could make this combo into a nice lasagna. So, I did.

As some of you might remember I have a CSA that I share with my friend Maureen. We got a nice bushel of basil, kale, garlic, cucumbers and some other things. But to our surprise and, perhaps, dismay, we received an eggplant. We both aren't huge fans of eggplant, but we decided to cut it in half and see what would come out of it. So, when I decided to create these Puttanesca Lasagna Rolls I decided to add some Eggplant and Spinach. Just to thicken it up.

First, I boiled some lasagna noodles.
Second I started chopping. I had some help from my lovely assistant and partner in crime, Karl. He chopped the basil and mozzarella. I chopped the onion, garlic, Olives, spinach and Eggplant.

I sauteed the onions, garlic and eggplant first then added all the other veggies.
Then, I added the can of diced tomatoes, capers and anchovy paste (you need more than you think in order to get a good flavor). While all that is cooking, Karl whipped up the ricotta mixture. Just a little fresh basil, some oregano, red pepper and nutmeg.
Then it came time to roll.
We laid the cooked noodle out, spread some ricotta on it, added a little sauce and started rolling.

We then place each roll in a baking dish, covered it in the remaining sauce, topped it with fresh mozarella and baked at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
And it was AMAZING!!!

2 comments:

The Chocolate Puma said...

That looks delicious. And thank you for my invite to try some of these delicious delicacies...(hint hint)

The Curly Haired girl from the Midwest said...

Oh you'll be invited soon enough Puma