Green Lasagna: Artichokes and Mushrooms - Lasagna Verde ai Carciofi e Funghi

Finally I got some nice artichokes and it's already ages I have been dreaming about cooking my green lasagna... Why green? Because the lasagna sheets I use for it are made with spinach and have a green colour. You may say it's a vegetarian lasagna, no meat, just veges... I do understand that in other countries it's not easy to find this type of lasagna sheets but if you cannot find them you may use the white ones. 
 
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 4-6

250g green lasagna sheets
1 big artichoke
400g mushrooms
300-350g mozzarella cheese
100g Parmigiano
2-3 garlic cloves
salt 
EVO oil

 For Bechamel:
0.6-0.7l milk
50g butter
2,5 tbs flour
salt
nutmeg 
  
 First prepare Bechamel sauce. This sauce is widely used in French and Italian cuisine. It is basically a milk sauce thickened with Roux, that is a mix of butter and flour. In the reastaurants they prepare roux in great quantities and keep it in the fridge, they obviously use it to thicken different sauces.  
1. To prepare Roux melt butter in a sauce pan and when it just starts boiling add flour and mix well, keep cooking till the mix will get a nice golden caramel colour. 
2. Heat the milk apart, but don't boil it to avoid forming of the cream film on it.

3. Add milk to the Roux little by little and stir vigorously with a whisk to remove any crumble.
4. Cook over a medium heat constantly stirring for about 5 minutes, by that time the sauce will thicken. But don't forget stirring well!!!
5. At the end season with some salt to taste and half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg. 

6. Pour hot Bechamel into a large bowl and cover it with a plastic film paying attention to adhere the film onto the sauce surface. This will avoid forming of lumps. 
   

Now, we prepare two types of fillings for our lasagna.

1. You may use one big artichoke or couple of small ones. But take the fresh artichokes not the canned ones. Clean artichokes as it is explained HERE. As an alternative you may use frozen artichokes...
2. Slice artichokes finely and cook them with some EVO oil in a frying pan till they are nice and golden. Salt them to taste. If you like you may add some chilli.

3. Clean and chop mushrooms. Cut into halves two garlic cloves.
4. In a separate frying pan heat some EVO oil and brown a bit the onion, add mushrooms and cook them till the golden colour. Take the garlic away.

At this point we are ready to gather our lasagna. 
I use here the green fresh lasagna sheets, if you cannot find these, you may try with the usual white fresh lasagna sheets... if you cannot find these... then use the dry lasagna and check it out on the box if you need to boil the sheets in advance...
1. Prepare mozzarella: squeeze the cheese from it's whey ad cut into small cubes. You may use mozzarella for pizza, the one that is sold without whey. But please, please, don't use grated mozzarella. This Italian cheese doesn't exist grated in Italy and as the cheese is Italian, so.....
2.  Grate Parmigiano cheese finely.

3. Pour some EVO oil into a ceramic/glass pan and spread some Bechamel as well. Here comes the first lasagna sheet.
4. Choose one from the two fillings and spread on the first lasagna sheet, then spread some Bechamel sauce, some mozzarella and a handful of Parmigiano.
 
5. Lasagna sheet again, the second type of filling, mozzarella and Parmigiano.
6. Continue with the layers alternating the fillings. You need to make about 5-6 layers. 

7. Add more Parmigiano on top of lasagna.

 8. Cook in the preheated oven at 200C for 25-30 minutes. At the end the top should be nicely golden. You may try a tiny corner of the upper layer to see if it's ready. You may also try it with a knife, making a tiny cut somewhere in the centre of lasagna.

Wait for about 10 minutes before serving as a just-ready lasagna burns.... 

Buon Appetito!!!  

   

Fried Artichokes

Hey there, before my relocation to Italy I'd never think that this kind of flowers, that looks like a huge thistle, would become one of my favourite dishes. Artichokes are actually flowers, not vegetable as we take them for, but in order to eat them you won't wait for them to flourish.

During my trips around the world I had a chance to see that in many nations they really use artichokes as flowers, I saw them among the ornamental compositions and that seem to be a great waste for me.... that's why I even don't have a picture of the artichoke flowers :-)
Usually we find artichokes in a preserved version, as a starter or parts of various salads. Not so many people outside Italy know how wonderfully tasty they are if you FRY them!!!
Artichokes are rich in minerals, vitamins and even used for medical purposes: they act as a diuretic, improve liver function, have antioxidant capacity, reduce cholesterol and aid digestion. Here in Italy we even have a liqueur called Cynar, this can be used on the rocks as an aperitif or as a part of the Negroni Cocktail (1/3 gin, 1/3 red Vermouth, 1/3 Campari), substituting Cynar instead of Campari.

INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2

2 round artichokes
1 lemon
For batter:
 2 eggs
1/2 glass beer
flour
salt
peanut oil (sunflower, corn, soy...)  

1. How to choose a good artichoke? 
There are many varieties of artichokes but I prefer the round ones that we call here "Romanesco", Roman. You need to choose one that is green in colour, compact and has the petals tightly stuck one to another. Don't take them if the artichokes started to bud, even a bit, if you feel them being "loose" as you touch them! In this case they will result in being woody... In fact the big one from the picture was not so tender when I cooked it couple of days later. This time I cooked only those smaller ones.
2. How to prepare artichokes for cooking? 
   1) Wash the artichoke
   2) Prepare a lemon cut in halves.
   3) Cut the stem 2-3 cm to the base of the artichoke and leave it aside, you can peel it later and cook as it's eatable and has the same taste as the artichoke itself.

   4) Start ripping the petals off one by one starting from the bottom. From time to time pass the lemon over the artichoke to prevent from browning. You need to rip as many petals as it's necessary to see the lighter colour of them.  
   5) Cut off the top of the artichoke with a sharp knife. And refine the petals in a spiral way.
  6) Rub the lemon over the artichoke.

  

7) Cut the artichoke in halves. 

  8) In the centre of any flower there are the stamens and even artichoke has them but they are too hard and prickly to be eaten so we need to remove them.  
  9) Try to cut the tops of the inner petals as they also result in being prickly. I usually cut them as a little triangle... And that's it, we have our artichoke clean and ready to be cooked!

3. Let's go back to cooking as the toughest part is over!!!
Now we need to prepare the batter. My version of it is based on cold beer. So you need to mix the eggs with some flour and salt, then add beer, if you see that the batter results in being too liquid add some more flour. The beer needs to be really cold as this help the crispiness. The batter shouldn't be smooth, it may have some grumps in it, this way it will be crispier.
4. Cut the artichoke in thin slices and gradually emerge them into the batter, fry them in the hot oil, not many at a time, they will be crunchier like this and will cook faster.
5. Drain the artichoke slices and place them on the brown paper to remove the excess of the oil. Salt them a bit.     

 

Serve them immediately, while still hot!

 

Note: you may season the fried artichokes with lemon juice.

 


      
 


 
 

Barley salad

I'm having, how to say, a healthy mood. I try to cook healthy food all the time but this one turned out to be "all natural products" dish....








INGREDIENTS
 (recipe for 3-4)

1 full glass of barley
3 eggs
pickled cucumbers (to taste)
10-12 cherry tomatoes
black olives (to taste)
canned artichokes (to taste)
EVO oil  
salt
basil
oregano

1. How to cook barley? It's not difficult but it needs time! Wash your barley carefully to remove excess of starch from it. Then cook it in not less then 2 liters of water for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your taste.  
Drain it and wash under current water for 5-10 seconds, as it results in being too sticky if not. Drain well!!! Don't get discouraged if you cook barley for the first time: it looks grey and not attractive.... Don't pay attention please. Barley has a great quantity of proteins so if you want to avoid eating meat - here we go!!! Healthy!!!!

2. Cut eggs and all the vegetables into small pieces.

3.  Add eggs, veges and herbs to the cooled barley and mix well.


4. What is EVO oil? This is how in Italy we abbreviate  "Extra Virgin Olive Oil".
 Note: Lots of people think that any olive oil is almost the same.
The best oil is coming from the first cold mechanic pressing done in the first 24 hours time after gathering (if not it becomes too acid) and this oil is called Extra Virgin. It has light greenish color and it produces a slight tingling in the throat while tasting. 
The other types of olive oil are produces with the help of the heating or chemicals...

So, garnish with some EVO oil and salt your salad, mix.  
You can decorate it to your liking.... ENJOY!!!!