10 recipes down, 260 days to go
I have reached double digits!
I had always wondered how lasagna was made. When I came across this recipe my first time looking through the cookbook, I knew I had to make it, if only out of curiosity for the process. It turned out to be surprisingly simple—a layering of noodles in a casserole dish, with filling spread in between.
While this is lasagna, this recipe is a far cry from lasagna I had had previously. This is not the traditional beef and cheese kind.
Saturday, September 5th
- Butternut and Pesto Cream Lasagna -
Laura Wright makes this recipe at the collision of summer and fall, when butternut squash and basil are ripe and abundant in her garden. This lasagna was meant to suit the first cool nights. Not exactly how it ended up being… it was over 100 degrees that day!
I think I might have jumped the boat on the start of the Fall season, because on Saturday a heat wave started, which is supposed to last all next week. Oh well, how was I supposed to know what the weather of the future has in store? I’m not a supernatural being or anything... I’m just your average teenage girl trying to live her best life.
On a separate note, this week I became aware of my “salt and pepper to taste” habit.
A Question for All:
Is it just me as a rushing, amateur cook, or does anyone actually “taste?”
When I get to this step, I’m usually so frantically behind with everything else I grind the pepper as hard as I can for like 5 seconds, and grab a pinch of salt to sprinkle on. And I desperately hope it fits the “to taste.”
Let me know what you do personally in the comments!
One bit of inside info that you probably can't tell from the pictures...
...I MISCOUNTED the lasagna noodles!
I was so behind time and rushing, I miscounted the noodles putting them in the pot to cook! I realized only after I had drained them that I had cooked eight, not nine. I was missing a noodle!
That was a good one… I just had to laugh at my mistake :).
This is how the third (top) layer of the lasagna came to have two, not three noodles.
Thoughts:
The combination of the butternut squash and the basil pesto looked so fresh and vibrant, and smelled and tasted delicious. The toasted pine nuts on top were a perfect complement to further bring out the abstract flavors of this dish. Yes, the flavors were definitely abstract... don't be expecting it to taste like a traditional lasagna! This was something truly different.
A Point of Self-Reflection:
Why am I seemingly always running behind?