Pasta must be the first thing I've felt confident cooking, and I'd like to believe I share that sentiment with most college students. Whether it's a package of ramen or a box of Kraft mac 'n' cheese, there is so much appeal to having a filling serving within 10 minutes—give or take. And while instant Cup Noodles are still a thing for me, instant mac 'n' cheese never caught on.
Homestyle mac 'n' cheese gets my attention, but there is a hefty amount of nostalgia waiting beneath that ultra-delicious, likely-synthetic Kraft cheese sauce, such that no matter how many times I'm tempted to even order the over-priced, small-portion versions that so many restaurants offer, my heart always jumps to consider Kraft.
The Pasta Constitution
For consistency's sake, "pasta," for me, includes everything Italian which comes to mind and everything Asian which usually doesn't. Shirley, other regions' variations also fall into this category (Middle-Eastern cuisine tends to combine pasta with rice; Polish cuisine includes pierogies; Turkey and Hungary make dumplings), but since the word itself originates in Italian, we don't often consider the others in the same light.
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| Somen Noodles |
"Pasta" comes from the Latin for "dough" (literally "paste"), and therein lies the connection; however, this is different from your typical bread dough because pasta does not traditionally contain a rising agent, such as yeast, etc. The preparation of ramen is unique in that it does rise in order to create a spongelike network, before being dried for packaging. What I see from this, though, is that each culture treated one meal component in vastly different ways, and it shows how versatile pasta truly is.
Whatever its nationality, pasta is almost always made from wheat. Gluten is the operative factor in pasta, being responsible for the dough's initial elasticity. (Gluten is inherently found within wheat, barley, rye, spelt, and related grains.) Individual wheat pastas can vary greatly by their flour, affecting both their texture (00-grade to whole-wheat) and color (buckwheat in soba noodles).
When it's not made from wheat, the starch can be obtained from rice, yams, beans, cassava (tapioca), etc. These are naturally gluten-free; however, if they are transported or processed alongside wheat products, they may become contaminated with gluten. Like the callout "may contain traces of peanuts," facilities which process wheat are also mentioned on packaging. Alternatives to gluten often use xanthan gum (bacteria-based) and/or guar gum (plant-based) to produce similar elasticity.
The other half of pasta is egg, but this actually only comes into play when you're making your own. If gluten is the binding ingredient, egg is used for its moisture. But boxed pastas are dried, and so, most of them don't even contain egg; those are merely fortified flour. Many of them are, however, made in facilities which process eggs, so there is that to consider.
I did mention that this is simple. As such, in this series of recipes, I'm not at all talking about fresh, homemade pasta—which I have no experience with either directly or through purchasing. If you're looking to make pasta from scratch, I recommend this full-fledged article lovingly explaining the dos and don'ts of the process. After reading that, I honestly look forward to trying it myself. But for all past creations of ours, and those for the foreseeable future, we are strictly talking stiff, mass-produced and pre-packaged pasta.
Layers of Love
You know I love to address leftovers, so it makes sense that this recipe comes after the rat. I slaved over slicing those vegetables—rounds of tomato, yellow squash, zucchini, baby eggplant, and Anaheim pepper. I actually ended up with so much extra that the baking dish I photographed for the previous recipe was the smaller container. A lot of these were likewise layered in their rosette form within our 5-quart pot. And still, there were leftovers.
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| PrepaRATions |
So, what became of those remaining slices? Two days later, they made their debut in another dinner party for vegetable lasagna. I love the Stouffer's meal that ShopRite rewards you with during holidays, though I assure you that what follows doesn't stack up nearly as tall.
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| April 20, 2012 - Vegetable Lasagna |
If this weren't already an amateur attempt, the noodles were labeled "oven-ready." How appropriate for the first recipe in this series, to showcase the most convenient and cheap pasta. There's no shame associated in using it; I just wasn't comfortable with cooking giant noodles to al dente perfection—and so you know, I haven't made lasagna since.
The first layer to go down is usually the sauce. If not, it's oil. Here, it was probably just puree, as I'd used for the ratatouille. After that went three oven-ready lasagna noodles, ricotta along two of them (explanation follows), and yellow squash and zucchini rounds over that. The order of vegetables doesn't really matter, and the selection can be replaced with broccoli, carrot, etc. One-third of this lasagna was made to be free-of-cheese, because when Jes and I first met, we suspected that she may have had lactose-intolerance or some other disability which was affected by dairy. (We're still waiting to discover the real issue, but that explains why some of our meals avoid cheese). And, I'm not one for using substitutes, so that third was nothing more than pasta primavera in the end.
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| April 20, 2012 - Vegetable Lasagna |
The sauce restarts the layering, followed by three more noodles, more ricotta, zucchini and eggplant rounds, and shredded mozzarella—again, along the two-thirds. By this point, the cheese-less side was starting to look rather shallow.
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| April 20, 2012 - Vegetable Lasagna |
The final layer (over sauce, noodles and ricotta) took the vegetable remainder: more zucchini, yellow squash, and the delicate tomatoes. More mozzarella was added before chopped basil, dried oregano and ground pepper topped the whole plate. You can tell I was skimping on some of these ingredients, which is one reason why I'm not including measurements: if you think it deserves more, go for it. The other reason, you might have guessed, is because I honestly don't know. But, if I could go back and change one thing, I'd probably layer this twice as high, at least. Which, of course, would call for more vegetables than I had ready.
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| April 20, 2012 - Vegetable Lasagna |
I do not believe I covered this. Ideally, lasagna should be covered with foil for the greater length of its cook-time, and uncovered for a short time following for that nice, browned-cheese effect. For specifics, 350 degrees for 30 minutes is about par, with 10 additional minutes uncovered. Temperature may vary to 375 or 400 degrees, and timing may vary from 25 to 45 minutes depending on the ingredients (cream sauce, meat, etc.). If these vegetables had been chunkier, that may have been reason enough to kick up the heat.
For that additional time, I added our wonderfully lumpy grated parmesan to the top. I can't say that a plated slice was presentable. Then again, that's usual in my experience with lasagna. But it was worth the minimal effort it took to assemble, and that's about all it takes to please most people. Texture? sloppy. Taste? smooth. Room for improvement? definitely. Will you see it here? probably not.
Other Recipes in this Series:
Ruth's Pasta Salad
Baked Spaghetti with Cheesy Garlic Bread
Deconstructed Shrimp Alfredo
Shrimp Ramen
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