Mushroom Lasagna
(Inspired by Chef Bill Telepan)
Several months ago, Chef Bill Telepan came to my apartment to cook dinner for eight guests. This was a charity auction item I had won at last year’s Cancer Care gala. Bill’s mushroom lasagna was the showstopper of his five-course meal that evening. Immediately, I thought the dish needed to be recreated for you on tartetatintales.com. As I knew getting Bill to write down the steps would be problematic—chefs are notoriously busy and don’t like to produce recipes for consumers—at least I could ask what his trick was to create such an ethereal dish. “Two things,” Bill explained as he plated the dish, “Use fresh pasta noodles and cook your mushrooms in heavy cream. Forget about the heavy béchamel.”
Normally, a béchamel sauce is used for making lasagna. However, if calories are secondary and taste first for you, then try Bill’s version. You’ll see that when you cook down heavy cream, it thickens into a lovely sauce replacing the role of béchamel. Further, when you cook your mushrooms in the cream, it intensifies the flavor of the sauce imparting it with a rich, earthy flavor full of umami deliciousness.
If you have a good source for fresh pasta—although homemade is even better!— go for it. Alternatively, you can use dried lasagna pasta. However, for this recipe I opted to make the pasta from scratch as this will deliver the “ethereal” effect I wanted. To do so, I went to Jersey City to the home of wine and pasta aficionado Anthony Giglio who gave me a refresher course. We made two pounds of handmade pasta, one for our dinner that evening—a divinely satisfying pasta carbonara—and another which he sent home with me which we had cut into perfect sheets for making lasagna.
Ingredients: Make sure everything is at room temperature
1 pound of either fresh or dried lasagna noodles
2 Tablespoons EVOO
1 pound fresh, wild mushrooms; washed, dried, and cut into small pieces. (I used The Chef’s Mix from Whole Foods which includes Maitake, Shiitake, Golden Oyster, Pioppino, and King Trumpet.)
1 large Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream (or a mixture of half and half and heavy cream)
1 cup cooked, fully drained, and finely chopped kale (or spinach)
1 cup fresh ricotta cheese
1 cup freshly ground Parmesan cheese
Cooking directions:
For the pasta noodles:
1. Preheat oven to 375° F
2. Prepare a large bowl of cold water. Lay out some lint-free dishtowels on your kitchen counter.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil adding 1 Tablespoon of salt. Add the lasagna noodles a few at a time and cook until tender but slightly underdone. Pull out the noodles using tongs or a skimmer and drop in the water. When cool enough to handle, pull out the noodles and lay them on the dish towel to dry. Continue cooking the rest of the noodles. You can stack the noodles by adding another layer of towel. Remember, if using fresh noodles, the cooking times will be considerably reduced than if using dried. Set aside the best-looking 3-4 pasta strips for the top layer.
4. Butter an 8 x 12 x 2-inch pan.
For the filling:
5. Heat the olive oil in a large 12-inch skillet over a medium heat. Add onions, shallots and celery and cook, stirring occasionally until soften, about 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for another minute.
6. Stir in the mushrooms, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add wine and continue cooking until all the liquid has evaporated.
7. Add heavy cream and stir in thoroughly with the mushrooms. Heat over a low flame until the cream thickens. (If you want to save on calories, then make 2 cups of your favorite béchamel sauce.)
To assemble:
8. Spread a small amount of the mushroom mixture on the bottom of the pan. Arrange a layer of pasta, overlaying the pieces. Spread a thin layer of the mushroom mixture, ¼ cup of the chopped kale, ¼ cup of the ricotta cheese, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Repeat two more times. For your top and final layer, use your best pieces of pasta. Finish off with one last round of the mushroom sauce, kale, and ricotta. Use up the remaining amount of the Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil.
9. Bake the lasagna in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook an additional 15 minutes or until the top is brown, the edges of the top noodles crisp, and the sauce bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and garnish with a few sprigs of fresh thyme.
Serves: 6-8
Wine recommendations: For a white wine, a Burgundy, unoaked California Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, or Trebbiano. For a red, a Sangiovese (such as a Chianti), a Barbaresco or Pinot Noir. Naturally, a crisp, dry Champagne is never an incorrect choice especially for this rich dish.