‘Tis the season for funghi and salsiccia (mushrooms and sausage), they just taste right this time of year as the fog sticks around longer, the night comes quicker, the smell of wood smoke fills the air, and I wonder where on earth did I put my gloves. We’ve already been wearing thick neck scarves for over a month because the threat of cold air is particularly deadly in Italy, ask any Italian and they will issue dire warnings about having cool air on your neck.
It’s also a good time of year for al forno pasta, or pasta baked in the oven, because not only does the house smell good, but it warms up my chilly kitchen.
You’ll need:
1/2 kilo of mixed mushrooms: fresh, dried, frozen
8 sausage links, good, rustic pork sausage, not effete chicken & apple sausage
1-liter porcini béchamel sauce (don’t worry, see below, its not hard)
750 grams ricotta di pecora (huh? See below)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
250 grams grated parmigiana, the real thing, not out of a green can
1/2 kilo of lasagne pasta
2 cups milk
8 teaspoons butter
6 teaspoons flour
Olive oil, salt, pepper
I used euro weights just to get you in an Italian state of mind. You need about a pound of mushrooms and sausage, a quart of béchamel, 26 ounces of ricotta, but if it comes in a 32-ounce container, use the 32 ounces. Ricotta di pecora is sheep’s milk ricotta and if you can find it, use it, if not … demand it! And just in case you don’t have a field of sheep ready to produce, use regular cow’s milk ricotta. 250 grams grated parmigiana is about two good handfuls. You need about a pound of pasta.
The trick to lasagne is to prep all the ingredients before you move on to assembly. Everything should be right in front of you, neatly arranged in bowls, you need to “mise your place” or things get very messy.
1) Slit open the sausages, turn the meat out into a bowl and break it up with a fork. Then gently sauté the meat until done, all the way mashing it with the fork to break it up into crumbles.
2) Mushrooms: I like to use a mix of dried porcini, frozen mixed mushrooms, and fresh ‘champignon’ or white button mushrooms. Dried porcini add depth to the overall mushroom flavor, and fresh porcini cost a bundle, so if you get fresh, then eat them raw in a salad and don’t waste them on a lasagne! Put a good handful of dried porcini into a quart glass jar and fill with two cups of lukewarm water, letting the dried ‘shrooms steep. You’re going to be using that porcini water for the béchamel, so don’t throw it out!
Thaw out your frozen mushrooms in a bowl of warm water. Thinly slice the fresh mushrooms. Gently sauté all of the mushrooms, along with the finely chopped onion. (Gently means use medium heat. I’m not suggesting you use a soft spatula and massage the little funghi, you can be as rough as you like it with the mushrooms, just keep the heat low enough that you don’t scorch anything). Drain the dried porcini and add them last, reserving the porcini water.
3) Put on a big pot of water to parboil your lasagne.
4) Porcini béchamel: 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of the dried porcini water, 8 teaspoons of butter and 6 teaspoons of flour. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan (heavy bottom distributes the heat better so you don’t get super hot spots), and then add all of the flour and start stirring with a whisk. You want the flour to get a light caramel color, and you do not want the flour/butter mixture to splash onto your hand because it will burn like napalm. When the flour smells appealing, slowly add the porcini water, still mixing constantly, then add the milk and cook until it thickens into a sauce, about five minutes of stirring time.
