A Wisconsin Lasagna in Brooklyn
For my birthday this year my sister, who lives in Wisconsin, sent me a selection of artisanal cheeses from Carr Valley Cheese. These Wisconsin cheeses ranged from the wonderful — goat’s milk cheddar, slightly sharp and milky — to the truly awful — cocoa cardona, a musky cheese inexplicably covered with cocoa powder.
left to right: cocoa cardona, canaria, apple smoked cheddar, gouda, goat milk cheddarI got tired of sampling the individual cheeses, and decided to make a lasagna that incorporated a bunch of them together. While I boiled the lasagna noodles I prepared the “bechamel” sauce. I sauteed celery, carrot, and onion in olive oil with salt and pepper and fresh oregano, and when they got soft I added some flour. When this cooked through a bit, I poured milk over the top and reduced the heat to let it thicken. I also cubed samples of the Carr Valley gouda, goat milk cheddar, cocoa cardona, and canaria cheese. For the fifth cheese I sliced some fresh mozzarella from the Italian market up the street, which was amazing.
When the noodles were finished cooking, I drained and cooled them. In a lasagna pan I poured a bit of the bechamel, then topped that with a layer of noodles. Then came the gouda, some more bechamel, then noodles. I repeated this with the rest of the cheeses, topping the whole thing with the fresh mozzarella and some more fresh oregano. I covered it with aluminum foil and put it into a preheated 350 degree oven for about half an hour.
After that half hour, I removed the foil and let it cook for another 15 minutes. This let the mozzarella melt and brown a bit. Then I removed it from the oven and let it sit for ten minutes before digging in. It was good, but I found it was even better cold, the next day. Even that nasty cardona had mellowed with the cooking.
Thanks for the birthday present!
Posted by Howard
Related Posts:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment