Tuesday, May 20, 2008

.salmon asparagus lasagna.


A couple weeks ago, I had a little food challenge here where I had people leave the three ingredients they'd like to see used in a dish. The winning ingredients were salmon-asparagus-fresh mozzarella. I thought about it awhile and decided to try making a spin on lasagna. Here's the dish I came up with!



CHEESE FILLING:

Ricotta cheese. Don't use this big of a container. I had tons leftover.
Put it in a bowl.
















Break in one egg.
Add salt and pepper.











Grate 1 cup fresh parmesan cheese. Add to bowl.











Cut up about 4-5 asparagus spears. I cut them at a diagonal for visual interest.
We need to blanch these so put a pot of water on to boil.







Dump the asparagus into the hot water and let boil for about 3 minutes. Pull out using a serrated spoon and dumping them immediately into a bowl of ice water. This will stop them from cooking.








Add the asparagus to the cheese mixture. Stir everything together.
Set aside.









I wasn't sure how the sauce would cook these noodles (when I make normal lasagna I don't pre-boil my pasta). Go ahead and cook them according to the package and set aside.



LEMON DILL SAUCE:




Mince a few cloves of garlic.











In a saucepan, heat some olive oil. Add the garlic and 1 tsp dill weed. Saute for a minute to release the flavors.









Add 1/4 cup lemon juice.











In a bowl, mix together 4 cups milk and 1/2 cup flour. Whisk well to get rid of all the lumps.











Pour the milk/flour mixture into the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until the sauce begins to thicken.








It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.











Add 1 Tbsp butter and stir in. This will give the sauce a little richness in flavor.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside.








Take salmon fillets and using your knife, cut at a 45 degree angle. We want really thin slices of salmon here. Set all the salmon slices on a plate. We're ready to start putting everything together!








Take your baking pan and put some of the sauce on the bottom.










Put down some lasagna noodles.











Put down a layer of thinly sliced salmon.











Use a spoon to spread out some of the ricotta cheese/asparagus mix.
Repeat the process until your pan is full. SAUCE - PASTA - SALMON - RICOTTA








Take 1 lb of fresh mozzarella cheese and grate. If you're working with a cheese like this that is really soft, put it in the freezer for about half hour. This will firm it up a little, making it easier to grate.








Top the lasagna off with the cheese.
Put this in the oven at 350* for about half hour or so.









What you're looking for is a wonderful golden top. Pull from the oven and let sit for about 5-10 minutes before serving. This will help everything firm up a little.
Cut and serve. I made caesar salad to go with this.
A wonderful variation! I made enough lasagna to make two so one is in the freezer waiting to be cooked at a later date. Enjoy!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_59ffssq5ck

5 comments:

jennifersmn said...

OMG that looks amazing!! Im so making that when Don's here....thank you...you rock baby!!!

Jackie S. said...

Okay, that looks AWESOME!!!! I am totally going to try it.

Shawna said...

my dh would love this!

Anonymous said...

Looks great! You may want to change "put in the freezer at 350" to the oven though...LOL!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, just what I needed, you did a wonderful job.