re: Submission Thread for F&DB Noodle Challenge

Another first timer. Started with something simple. Also wasn't thinking about posting until I had the dish in progress on Sunday, so the initial prep was missed.

Lasagne al Forno

Started with basic ragu/bolognese. 1/2 cup each of fine diced carrots, celery and onion. Into the pot with olive oil and sauteed until softened. Then added ~14oz of ground sirloin and 8oz of sweet Italian sausage. Once browned, drain most of the fat and add 1 cup of red wine, cook to reduce wine volume by half. Next add 1 1/2 cup of sieved tomatoes and 1.5 TBSP of tomato paste, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground pepper and 2 cups beef stock. Simmer for 2 hours and then add another cup of stock and simmer another hour.

Result looked like this.
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Next, the pasta. Mixture of 50:50 "00" flour and semolina flour. Make well and add egg, olive oil and salt. Bench mix and kneed until it came together. Added a little water to help it along and probably could have used a little more moisture when it came time to roll the pasta. Wrap in plastic and into the fridge for 30 minutes.



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Finished sheets


Now, on to the bechamel sauce.

Butter and flour to make a light roux


Two cups milk, heated until coats a spoon and then grated parm, nutmeg, salt, black and white pepper




Assembly: Spoon of ragu in bottom of dish, then layer of pasta, couple spoons of ragu spread evenly and two spoons of bechamel. Repeat four times and on top layer spread remaining bechamel to cover completely and then top with torn slices of mozzarella (supposed to be fresh, but I had part of an aged log that I needed to use).







Bake in 350 deg. oven for ~55 minutes


Serve


Creating one of these posts is almost as much work and cooking the dish. Need to work on my pictures, focus seems off on several.

I made that roasted tomato and feta cheese pasta tonite all the soccer moms are flipping out about, added garlic and Italian sausage

it’s not challenge worthy in any sense but MF it’s good

So I went with an Amuse Bouche

Honey Butter Glazed Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Tasso cream, and wilted spinach topped with diced smoked ham hock
Started with the ham hock stock

Next was the Tasso cream

Melted the honey butter with a bit of salt

Poached the gnocchi in the remainder of the ham hock stock

Drained and tossed in The honey butter

Finished product!

Nice looking ravioli MD. We got the show sheep we sponsored for FFA back from the processor last week, so I braised the shanks and made a nice filling. Unfortunately, COVID hit my daughter's school again so I've been stuck at home. Really wanted to enter this one...

All of these dishes look great. going to be another difficult vote.

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. This took 4 or 5 tries (too many drinks to remember), because I wanted the bottom noodles crunchy like pizza crust, and the upper noodles softer again like pizza crust. I had to play with oil temp and amount of oil but eventually got it.

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Curious about this. Did it really have the feel of a crust? Was the bottom firm and would hold its shape like a pizza? If so, that's...amazing! Have you ever seen/read of that before? What oil temp?