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12/05/2002 Archived Entry: "Win Me (for a week in Italy)"

You may have heard me do commercials for Barilla’s Oven Ready Lasagna. I’ve always said Barilla is one of my top choices when I make baked pasta dishes and this product is no exception. The difference is, this pasta has been formulated to be cooked in the oven, in the baked dish, without prior cooking (boiling). With the right amount of liquid, it bakes up into a thin and delicate noodle. It’s almost magic. Pasta was actually cooked like this in the 19th century – directly from the dry state into a saucy or soupy dish.. But conventional pasta makes a dish starchy. Barilla’s product, the way I understand it, is made from such hard (high protein) wheat and rolled so thin, that it doesn’t.

You can use it in any recipe as long as you have six cups of sauce in the dish. That’s a light, homemade sauce made from three 28-ounce cans of tomatoes, or two 24- or 26-ounce jars of commercial tomato sauce.

Following are two recipes that I devised as variations on the back-of-the-box recipe. One is vegetarian – with spinach and hard-cooked egg in the layers. The other uses sopressata, instead of the usual cooked beef or pork.

To help get the word out about their Oven Ready Lasagna, Barilla is running a contest in which a week with me at my cooking school in, Paestum, Italy Cook At Seliano is the prize. To enter the contest, go to www.wor710.com. The deadline for entries is December 13th.

On December 14th, you can also see me cook lasagna on the “Chef on a Showstring” segment of the “CBS Saturday Early Show.” It should air, live, somewhere between 10 and 11 a.m. in the New York City metro area. If you live outside the area, check your local listings. The show tends to air live from 7 to 9 a.m. in other markets.

Lasagna with Salami

Serves as many as 12 for a first course, 6 as a main course

Diced salami, preferably Neapolitan-style sopressata, available at most supermarkets, substitutes for browned and crumbled meat in this recipe. Besides being delicious, using salami saves you from having to brown meat, which also saves you from having to clean another pan. Dried sausages like sopressata are often included in southern Italian baked lasagna. As an additional bonus, without the meat, the lasagna fills a conventional 2-inch deep, 13- by 9-inch baking pan. There’s no need to have a special 3-inch deep lasagna pan. I use Pryex, which will cook the lasagna at the lesser time indicated. A metal pan may require the slightly longer time.

1 box (9 ounces) Barilla Oven Ready Lasagna noodles, uncooked
2 eggs
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
1 pound mozzarella, shredded or coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a combination of Parmigiano and pecorino Romano
4 ounces sopressata (Neapolitan-style salami), cut into 1/8-inch dice or, if bought in slices, cut into dice
2 jars (26 ounces each) Barilla Marinara Sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the ricotta, half the mozzarella, and the grated cheese.

Spread 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a 13- x 9-inch baking pan. (For this variation, a standard 2-inch high pan is sufficient. There is no need to grease the pan.)

Arrange 4 uncooked noodles over the sauce, placing them down the center of the pan, overlapping them slightly, and leaving about 1/2 inch at each end of the pan. They will not reach any sides of the pan, but will fill the pan when cooked.

Using a spatula, spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the lasagna. Sprinkle with half the remaining mozzarella and half the diced sopressata. Dot the top with 1 cup more sauce, then spread the sauce around with a spatula.

Arrange 4 more uncooked noodles over the sauce, then spread on another 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, and 1 1/2 cups sauce.

Arrange 4 more uncooked noodles, the remaining ricotta mixture, the remaining sopressata and 1 cup more sauce.

Finally, arrange the last 4 uncooked noodles. Spread on the remaining sauce, then distribute the remaining mozzarella.

Cover snugly with foil and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until bubbly. Uncover and place back in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before cutting.

Egg and Spinach Lasagna
(A Vegetarian Lasagna)

Serves as many as 12 for a first course, 6 as a main course

Instead of meat in this recipe, I added spinach to the ricotta filling and sliced hard-cooked eggs to the layers. This version fully fills a 2-inch high baking pan, but just in case it bubbles over a little, put it on a baking sheet so it doesn’t bubble over into your oven.

1 box (9 ounces) Barilla Oven Ready Lasagna noodles, uncooked
2 eggs
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
1 pound mozzarella, shredded or coarsely chopped
1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, defrosted or lightly cooked, then squeezed of all excess moisture (and chopped if leaf spinach)
6 hard-cooked eggs, each cut into 6 to 8 slices
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, or a combination of Parmigiano and pecorino Romano
2 jars (26 ounces each) Barilla Marinara Sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the ricotta, half the mozzarella, the spinach, and the grated cheese.

Spread 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of a 13- x 9-inch baking pan. (For this variation, a standard 2-inch high pan is sufficient.)

Arrange 4 uncooked noodles over the sauce, placing them down the center of the pan, overlapping them slightly, and leaving about 1/2 inch at each end of the pan. They will not reach any sides of the pan, but will fill the pan when cooked.

Using a spatula, spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over the lasagna. Sprinkle with half the remaining mozzarella, the arrange a layer of half the sliced eggs. Dot the top with 1 cup more sauce, then spread it around with a spatula.

Arrange 4 more uncooked noodles over the sauce, then spread on another 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, and 1 1/2 cups sauce.

Arrange 4 more uncooked noodles, the remaining ricotta mixture, the remaining sliced eggs, and 1 cup more sauce.

Finally, arrange the last 4 uncooked noodles. Spread on the remaining sauce, then dot with the remaining mozzarella.

Cover snugly with foil, then bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until bubbly. Uncover and place back in the oven for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before cutting.