Big Sexy takes on....The French Laundry

Greetings food lovers!

As I was puttering around the house this past weekend, I heard someone mention in passing the renown restaurant, The French Laundry.  The French Laundry is one of the most famous restaurants in the country, it's located in the Napa Valley region and is notorious for its spectacular food and long wait to get a reservation.  I have not been there yet, but it's something I plan to do just out of curiosity more than anything else.  Recently however I had discovered that they published a cookbook, back in 1999 Owner and Chef Thomas Keller published a cookbook filled with stories about flavors and their creation and several of his recipes.


Patty reminded me that we have this book in our small but growing cooking library, apparently I had purchased the book a few months ago, but that it had slipped my mind.  So, because I was in the mood to try something new this week, I pulled it off the shelf and gave it a read.  Now, admittedly, I am still a novice chef so a lot of the recipes were a bit more than I was comfortable trying at this stage, but a few did stand out, one in particular was "Eric's Staff Lasagna".

The accompanying article with the recipe talked about the importance of building camaraderie among the staff, and an ideal way to accomplish this is the staff meal.  Just the troops getting together and sharing a meal.  It's a great concept, and one I use often with my softball team.  Many times I gather up the troops on "Team Sexy", and we will get together away from the field for sushi or cocktails, and the most recent time was we had a barbecue at one of the teammates home.  I love hanging with my troops outside of the games because it gives us the opportunity to get to know about each other as people in addition to being teammates, and that only helps to build the teamwork we need, and it's obviously successful judging by our 6 League championships.....just sayin....:)

The simplicity of the lasagna was the prime factor in my selecting it, and that it also gave me an opportunity to prepare my own sauce from scratch, so without further ado, I give you "Eric's Staff Lasagna":

For the Sauce-
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1 1/2 cups minced Yellow Onions
2 tablespoons minced Garlic
1/2 cup Tomato Paste
8 cups cut-up peeled Tomatoes, into about 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped Oregano and 2 teaspoons of chopped Basil

For the Filling-
1 1/2 pounds whole milk Ricotta Cheese
3 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped Parsley
Kosher Salt and Ground Pepper to season

and 1/2 pound grated Mozzarella for the top.

Let's go to work!

Preheat the oven to 350.

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot, then add the onions and garlic and let them cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes, then add the Tomato Paste and cook for 10 minutes.  Right about then the paste will separate and the oil will turn Orange.  At that point add your tomatoes and stir to combine, then let it simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring periodically so the sauce doesn't scorch and stick to the pot.

When the sauce is done it will be nice and thick and chunky, add the Oregano and let cool to room temperature before assembling the lasagna.

For the filling, get a large bowl and take the ricotta cheese and three eggs and whisk them together until blended, then add the parsley and salt and put in the refrigerator to cool while the noodles are cooking.

Once your noodles are done, drain them and put them in a big bowl . Then drizzle some Olive oil over them so they stay moist and don't dry out.  From there it's time to assemble the masterpiece!  Grab your lasagna pan, I used my Mack Daddy stainless steel one for this, then spread some sauce over the bottom,then spread a layer of the noodles across the bottom, making sure they overlap slightly.  Then spread half the ricotta over the noodles and top with another layer of noodles, then add more sauce, add more noodles then cover with cheese, and place the final layer of noodles over it and cover with the remaining sauce.  From there take your mozzarella and lightly toss it with salt and pepper and spread over the top.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour until the top is nice and golden brown, then remove from oven and serve it up!  Let's grub!

After having some, I must admit that the French Laundry cookbook is something I will be utilizing more often.  And now that I have one of the more simple recipes done, it's time to try something a little more complex, in the next installment I'm going to attempt something a little more advanced....and hope for the best!

Until next time troops!

Big Sexy