Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [105]
8. Bake on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven until a light, golden crust forms on top. It should take between 10 and 15 minutes. If after the first few minutes you don’t see any sign of a crust beginning to form, turn up the oven another 50° to 75°. Do not bake longer than 15 minutes altogether.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to settle for about 10 minutes, then serve at table directly from the pan.
Ahead-of-time note The lasagne may be completed up to 2 days in advance up to this point. Refrigerate under tightly sealing plastic wrap.
Lasagne with Mushrooms and Ham
For 6 servings
1½ pounds fresh, firm, white button mushrooms
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons butter plus more butter for greasing and dotting a 9- by 12-inch bake-and-serve lasagne pan, no less than 2½ inches high
⅓ cup onion chopped very fine
Two small packets OR 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted
Filtered water from the mushroom soak
⅓ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Homemade yellow pasta dough, made by the machine method, OR by the hand-rolled method, using 3 large eggs and approximately 1⅔ cups unbleached flour
¾ pound unsmoked boiled ham
Béchamel Sauce, using 2 cups milk, 4 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese, plus additional cheese at the table
1. Rinse the fresh mushrooms rapidly under cold running water. Drain and wipe thoroughly dry with a soft cloth or paper towels. Cut them very thin in lengthwise slices, leaving the stems attached to the caps.
2. Choose a sauté pan that can subsequently accommodate all the fresh mushrooms without crowding. Put in the oil, the 3 tablespoons of butter, and the chopped onion, and turn the heat on to medium.
3. Cook, stirring, until the onion becomes translucent. Put in the reconstituted dried porcini, the filtered water from their soak, the chopped tomatoes, and the parsley. Stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients, set the cover on the pan slightly ajar, and turn the heat down to medium low.
4. When the liquid in the pan has completely evaporated, put in the sliced fresh mushrooms, salt, and a few grindings of pepper, and turn the heat up to high. Cook, uncovered, for 7 to 8 minutes until all the liquid thrown off by the fresh mushrooms has evaporated. Taste and correct for salt and pepper, stir, turn off the heat, and set aside.
5. Make yellow pasta dough either by the machine method, or by the hand-rolled method. Following the instructions in the recipe for green lasagne, cut the dough into lasagne strips, parboil them, and spread them out to dry on cloth towels.
6. Preheat oven to 400°.
7. Cut the ham into very thin, julienne strips.
8. Make the béchamel sauce. When done, keep it warm in the upper half of a double boiler, with the heat turned to very low. If a film should form on top, just stir it when you are ready to use it.
9. Thickly smear the bottom of the lasagne pan with butter and a little bit of béchamel. Line the bottom with a single layer of pasta strips, cutting them to fit the pan, edge to edge, allowing no more than ¼ inch for overlapping.
10. Combine the mushrooms with all but 2 or 3 tablespoons of béchamel, then spread a thinly distributed layer of the mixture over the pasta. Scatter a few strips of ham over the sauce, then sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan. Cover with another pasta layer, cutting it to fit as you did before; use the trimmings of pasta dough to fill in gaps, if necessary. Repeat the sequence of mushroom and béchamel mixture,