LASAGNA ALLA MAMMA — The Kitchen Scholar

SOURCE: DAVID GEISSER, ERWIN NIEDERBERGER, AND THOMAS KELLY. THE VATICAN COOKBOOK: 500 YEARS OF CLASSIC RECIPES, PAPAL TRIBUTES, AND EXCLUSIVE IMAGES OF LIFE AND ART AT THE VATICAN.

Pope Francis elevated two of his fellow papal recipients of Time’s Man of the Year to sainthood on the Divine Mercy Sunday of 2014. Whereas the Vatican attributed the canonization of St. John Paul II to his intercession in the miraculous healing of two women from their neurodegenerative complications, the merit behind the transcendence of St. John XXIII grounded on his spearheading of the Second Vatican Council despite not serving long enough to witness the fruits of his ecumenical initiative. Having lived in poverty up to his untimely death from stomach cancer in 1963, Il Buono Papa, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, came and grew up from a family of sharecroppers in the northern Italian village of Sotto il Monte in Lombardy, and he, along with his dozen siblings, often ate Lasagna alla Mamma that his mother, Marianna, to whom the dish originally got its matriarchal reference, served. The pasta, however, takes the form of upright cylindrical rolls, instead of the conventional stacks, thus, practically allowing Marianna to feed her family of fifteen hungry mouths according to appropriate portions. — Pope Francis elevated two of his fellow papal recipients of ***Time’s Man of the Year*** to sainthood on the *Divine Mercy Sunday* of 2014. Whereas the Vatican attributed the canonization of St. John Paul II to his intercession in the miraculous healing of two women from their neurodegenerative complications, the merit behind the transcendence of St. John XXIII grounded on his spearheading of the Second Vatican Council despite not serving long enough to witness the fruits of his ecumenical initiative. Having lived in poverty up to his untimely death from stomach cancer in 1963, *Il Buono Papa*, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, came and grew up from a family of sharecroppers in the northern Italian village of Sotto il Monte in Lombardy, and he, along with his dozen siblings, often ate *Lasagna* *alla* *Mamma* that his mother, Marianna, to whom the dish originally got its matriarchal reference, served. The pasta, however, takes the form of upright cylindrical rolls, instead of the conventional stacks, thus, practically allowing Marianna to feed her family of fifteen hungry mouths according to appropriate portions.

Ingredients

Pasta Dough

1 1/4 cup/200 grams semolina flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon/6 grams salt, preferably sea salt

0.1 ounce/3 grams saffron threads, crushed

1 tablespoon/15 mL olive oil

Lasagna Filling

3 tablespoon/45 mL olive oil

1 large eggplant, diced to 0.5-inch/1.27-cm cubes

2 zucchinis, diced to 0.5-inch/1.27-cm cubes

1 tablespoon/9 grams finely minced garlic

2/3 cup/170 grams Ricotta cheese

2 cups/170 grams grated Pecorino-Romano cheese

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon/5 grams basil oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup/60 grams lightly toasted pine nuts

2 tablespoons/30 grams unsalted butter, cut into small dices

Specific Equipment

2 large mixing bowls

Wire whisk

Medium-sized mixing bowl

Fork

Plastic film wrap

Sauté pan

Pasta machine

Deep-bottomed stockpot

Colander

Paper towels

Spoon

Butter knife

Baking pan lined with parchment paper

Serves 4 to 5

Instructions

1. Place semolina flour in a large mixing bowl and make a deep well in the center. Whisk the eggs, salt, saffron, and olive oil altogether in a medium-sized mixing bowl until well-blended and pour in the well of the semolina flour. Stir the semolina flour gradually into the egg mixture with a fork until well-blended to form a firm dough. Knead the dough for several minutes until the dough makes a smooth ball. Wrap the dough with plastic film wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours to rest.

2. Pour olive oil into the sauté pan and set over medium heat. Sauté in the garlic, eggplant, and zucchini, continuously stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes until tender. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3. Whisk Ricotta cheese, 1 1/3 cup/113 grams Pecorino-Romano cheese, egg yolks, basil oil altogether in a large mixing bowl until well-blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the sautéed eggplant and zucchini and 1/4 cup/30 grams pine nuts until well-blended. Set aside.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

5. Roll the pasta dough to thin sheets in a pasta machine. Cut the sheets into 3-inch/7.6-cm wide strips. Let the pasta strips rest and dry slightly for 10 minutes.

6. Bring a stockpot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the strips of lasagna and let simmer for 2 minutes. Scoop out the lasagna and transfer immediately to a basin of iced water to cool and stop the cooking. Drain the lasagna over a colander and place them on a towel to dry.

7. Spoon the filling on a lasagna strip and spread to a thin layer with a butter knife. Roll each lasagna in tight cylinders. Set the lasagna roulades upright on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Dot with dices of butter and sprinkle the top with the remaining Pecorino cheese.

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top has turned golden brown. Remove the lasagna from the oven and transfer the rolls in equal portions on individual serving plates. Garnish the top with the remaining toasted pine nuts.

Jul 10 LASAGNA ALLA MAMMA