Sunday, March 22, 2015

Parisian Priorities


We would say "Eat & Drink", wouldn't we? But it seems the Parisians have different priorities. "Drink & Eat" this clever poster says. Found in a brasserie on Rue des Abesses in Montmartre.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Rustic Goat Cheese Lasagne

If you would just look at the view from my study into the garden and over the vineyard next door you'd be jealous: brilliant sunshine, blue sky, the first daffodil is blooming - it looks just like Provence is supposed to look this time of the year. What you don't see however is that our "beloved" Mistral, the icy wind from the north is slapping nature and us around. Our fireplace is working overtime, no one feels like going outside unless we absolutely have to. Which for me meant getting fresh vegetables to try out some new winter warming recipes.

 

For the filling of this melt in your mouth delicious Rustic Goat Cheese Lasagne (serves 6) you need:
1big red onion, sliced
2 zucchini, diced,
1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
4 herby, spicy sausages (think chipolata, salsiccia)
1 can chooped tomatoes
1 soft, mild goat cheese
2 cups bechamel sauce
8 lasagne sheets - I use ready made Barilla sheets that don't need precooking
 
Put to the side 1 cup of the halved cherry tomaotes. Mix all the other sliced and diced veg with a bit of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper and let roast in the oven (180 C/ 350 F) for 30 minutes. Meanwhile skin the sausages and break up the filling, then fry over medium heat until cooked through. Degrease over some layers of paper towels. Mix the sausage meat into the roasted vegetables and add the can of chopped tomatoes. Either prepare or use a ready made bechamel sauce.
In an ovenproof dish start with one layer of the vegetable/sausage filling, cover with lasagne sheets, evenly distribute one layer of bechamel sauce and crumble some goat cheese on top. Repeat this layering process once more, ending with pasta sheets generously covered with bechamel sauce onto which you now crumble all the rest of the goat cheese and decorate with the halved cherry tomatoes.
Bake at 180C/ 350 F for 30 minutes.