My favorite time at the market though, is this time right now. There are still late summer plums, tomatoes, and corn, maybe a bag of basil here and there, but the coolness in the air makes you want to actually cook whatever you pick up rather than just slicing and assembling. You find yourself stooping to pick up a mini pumpkin or two, some acorn squash, and a peck of honeycrisp apples. You want to turn on the stove, maybe even the oven.
Comfort foods have been calling out to me since I first had to slip my arms into jacket sleeves this September. What better way to spend a Saturday with no pressing obligations than to head to the farmer's market and then a little italian shop to pick up all the fixings for a homemade lasagna. It may be hard to convince you since lasagna has a certain reputation, but unlike some other lasagnas I've run into, this one tasted light and subtle, not ooey, gooey, cheesy. This is such a great thing to eat on a Saturday night at home with a big glass (or two) of red wine. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: cooking Italian food really can make you feel like Sophia Loren, who did once famously quip, "everything you see I owe to spaghetti."
Farmer's Market Lasagna
Serves 4 generously
tomato sauce (recipe follows)
4 ounces ricotta cheeses
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, grated
3/4 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
2 zucchini, sliced into rounds
lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
Preheat oven to 425 F. Set a large pot of water on to boil.
Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over moderately-high heat. Sauté zucchini until soft and brown in spots. Remove zucchini to a bowl, and set aside.
In the same pan, brown the sausage, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. Remove to another bowl and set aside.
Cook lasagna noodles according to package instructions, but remove from water about 2 minutes earlier than instructed (the noodles will continue to cook in the oven).
Spoon a bit of tomato sauce into the bottom of a 8x8 inch baking dish. Top with noodles cut to fit the pan (don't get out a ruler or anything, just eyeball this). Layer zucchini, sausage, ricotta, and mozzarella. Top with more noodles and more sauce. Keep layering, ending with a layer of mozzarella. Place baking dish on a cookie sheet to catch any overflow and bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and lasagna is bubblingly hot.
Tomato Sauce
adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
6 large, ripe tomatoes,*** about 5 pounds
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
Bring a pot of water to boil. Score an "X" on the bottom of each tomato and drop into the boiling water for a minute. Pluck tomatoes back out of the water and peel (this is a cinch).
In a medium sauce pan, add tomatoes, onion and butter. Let simmer moderately for about 45 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced somewhat, stirring occasionally to break up the tomatoes. Season with salt and remove the onion. Freeze any leftover sauce up to three months.
***If I were doing this again, I think I would use plum tomatoes (or maybe even a different tomato sauce recipe altogether). Since they have less juice, I imagine I would have had a way less saucy sauce on my hands.
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