Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis’ asparagus lasagna is common lasagna’s more energizing, brighter cousin.
The chef’s greener model of the basic casserole is strictly what a cool summer time night supper requires, and it’s a easy, elegant meal.
De Laurentiis’ Asparagus Lasagna is an aesthetic model of the normal Italian dish
As the Everyday Italian host writes in her cookbook Giada’s Kitchen, her veggie-centric spin on the casserole dish is way lighter than the unique.
“If you find regular lasagna with a tomato sauce too heavy for summer meals, this is a great alternative, and it’s a real stunner on the plate,” she writes. “A sun-dried tomato pesto is layered between the pasta and vegetables, adding a bit of sweetness to the dish.”
The recipe requires olive oil, lasagna sheets, jarred sun-dried tomatoes, recent basil leaves, grated Parmesan cheese, diced pancetta, minced recent garlic cloves, 4 bunches of asparagus trimmed and minimize into one-inch items, whole-milk ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and unsalted butter.
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The chef’s greener lasagna is well worth the effort
Firstly, De Laurentiis prepares the lasagna noodles and units them apart till they’re prepared for meeting of the dish.
Next, it’s time to make the pesto sauce: “It’s not your classic sauce,” De Laurentiis says within the Food Network video, hyperlink beneath, for this recipe. “But it’s going to look beautiful with the asparagus.”
The drained sun-dried tomatoes are mixed in a meals processor with “a lot” of basil leaves: “You don’t have to chop anything up because the food processor does it all for you,” she provides.
Keep in thoughts to not go away the components whirring away within the processor. The chef says what you’re in search of on this pesto is just not a clean sauce however a “coarse chop.” So pulse the basil and tomato mixture till it’s roughly chopped.
She mixes Parmesan cheese proper into the pesto and units it apart.
The pancetta is chopped, fried, and positioned on a plate. Then, in the identical pan, the chopped garlic and onion are cooked, salted and peppered. “You want to season every layer and the salt will actually help soften the onion and garlic,” she notes. Add the chopped asparagus and cook dinner it together with the onion combination. Once it’s all cooked, it’s stirred in with the ricotta.
In a 13 x 9 baking dish, a few of the pesto is scattered on the underside of the dish, adopted by a layer of lasagna sheets. On these noodles goes half of the asparagus/ricotta combination, then a 3rd of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat these layers and bake in a 350-degree F oven for 25 minutes.
Get the entire recipe and critiques on Food Network’s site or within the Giada’s Kitchen cookbook.
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Home cooks praised De Laurentiis’ spin on conventional lasagna
Proving there’s a lasagna for each season, Giada De Laurentiis’ asparagus model of the basic obtained a number of dozen five-star scores from reviewers on Food Network’s website.
“Very easy to put together and the taste is wonderful. The sun-dried tomatoes, pancetta, and basil blend so well with the asparagus. Great dish!,” one individual wrote.
Another house cook dinner said that De Laurentiis’ recipe made believers out of some lasagna purists: “Wow this lasagne was absolutely delicious! My family gave me a hard time when they saw it didn’t have any sauce like the traditional version. But after the first bite, they were hooked. Easy, moist, and very flavorful.”
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