There, that title should attract some new folk to my site….

It’s time, yes, for this week’s pasta! I told you I had one in reserve, since I’m now looking out over the Cerqueria Cesar neighborhood of São Paulo on a few day break to eat my way through some of the spots on either the World’s or Latin America’s 50-best list, or Michelin starred spots. I’m not remotely going to get to all of them, and a few of them are outside of my price range, but, a few more notches in the fork, so to speak. I’ll post some of those in the next days.

The pasta of choice, Lasagne ai funghi. Now, note first, lasagne, not lasagna. The former is the noodles, the latter is the dish we all tend to think of, in whatever guise it may be. In the Italian-American world, lasagna bianca, or white lasagna, is a relatively new invention, and generally seems to refer to a vegetable, cheese, and “white sauce” rather than “red sauce” laden version of the dish. But there is actually a tradition, from the area north of Rome in particular, of lasagne, that is, the lasagna noodles, being used to make what is often a special occasion dish, of alternating the pasta with besciamella, what we usually call bechamel (French) or white sauce (American English), and various cheeses. There is a particular one that I’m fond of that adds in mushrooms and, if not making it vegetarian, local sausage. And that’s what we’re making today, lasagne ai funghi, lasagna noodles with mushrooms.

We need our Italian sausage. Always surprising to me, even after 18 years (can you believe it’s been that long?), is that no one that I know of offers what I think of as Italian sausages – the type with a bit of a chili kick, fennel seeds, and herbs in it. They have various other Italian sausages, but that one just doesn’t seem to exist in Argentina. So, I make my own. This is a mix of freshly ground pork shoulder and pork skin, mixed with a little pork fat, salt, pepper, chili flakes, aniseed, fennel seed, garlic, sage, and sugar. Then sauteed until lightly browned and set aside to cool.

You can use pretty much any kind of mushrooms or a mix of them. Commonly used are portobellos, porcini, or these king oyster mushrooms.

Sliced, and sauteed in olive oil and butter with coarsely chopped garlic, until lightly browned, then deglazed with white wine and simmered until soft, about 15 minutes. Set those aside to cool too.

And, make a relatively classic bechamel or besciamella, a light roux of butter and flour, then half and half milk and cream (or just half and half if you have that in your fridge), seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Again, left to cool.

The pasta. I didn’t get all fancy and cut them with a fluted cutter. For this dish, you want them rolled out really thin. It’s a semolina pasta made mostly with water, but one or two egg yolks just to deepen the color. I used my crank style roller to make the sheets and went one setting thinner than I would typically do for the more classic red sauce lasagna. The pasta is intended to be more delicate. If you’re using boxed lasagna noodles, don’t worry about it. I blanched these quickly in boiling water – literally just dunking them, enough to set the surface so they don’t fall apart in the cooking. With fresh, it’s probably not necessary, but it’s the way I learned it, so, it’s the way I do it. With dry pasta, I am not in the camp of “you don’t need to boil them in advance”. I’m sorry, but you do. If you don’t, you end up with dry lasagna, the moisture to make the pasta soft has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is sucking it out of the sauce. You don’t have to fully cook them, but at least, for me, until they’re soft and pliable.

The assembly. I coat the baking dish with a little butter and a thin layer of the bechamel, to prevent the pasta from sticking to the dish. Note, I had eight big pieces, so I was planning on four pasta layers, you can do more or less, but at least this many is traditional. On the bechamel, two of the pasta pieces to cover, trimmed to fit, then top that with some of the sausage, mushrooms, and a quarter of the remaining sauce. Then I took a couple of burrata cheeses, tore them into bits. I kept the “innards”, the straciatella, or bits of stringy cheese in cream aside, you’ll see why. And then a grating of a hard cheese. In typical Lazio fashion, it’s common to mix sheep’s milk pecorino romano and cow’s milk parmigiano.

Top that with the next layer of pasta, and repeat, twice, finishing by topping the final pasta layer with the remaining besciamella, the reserved straciatella, more grated cheese, and little cubes of butter. This is, shall we say, a rich dish. I put this in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, pulling it out about 45 minutes before I wanted to serve it.

Into a medium hot oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Remove from the oven, let it sit for about five minutes just to cease bubbling.

And, serve. Garnish with a little chopped parsley, really just for color on the plate.

This is one of my favorite lasagna style dishes. Much as I love a classic bolognesa style one, this tops it for me. My version of white supremacy!

And now, back into the streets of São Paulo.