11 September 2017

A strange fascination, and another lasagna concoction

This blog is on autopilot right now. For me, the Florida hurricane coverage on American TV channels like CNN and MSNBC is too absorbing. I did force myself to go to bed at about 9:30 last night because I knew that the puppy would have me out of bed by 5 a.m. (and she did). I've been sitting here watching the storm reports for nearly two hours at this point.

What is the irresistible pull of watching video of the big storm in Florida? I guess it's because I grew up with hurricanes in North Carolina. Somehow I feel deprived of and cut off from an important part of my life experience because I'm not in the U.S. but in France now. At the same time, the damage and destruction will be terrible. It's like watching the proverbial train wreck.


Meanwhile, here in Saint-Aignan we are continuing to prepare, cook, eat, and preserve (freezing or canning) the wealth of amazing tomatoes and summer squash our 2017 vegetable garden is giving us.


A couple of days ago I made a zucchini and spinach lasagna with ricotta, mozzarella, and emmental ("Swiss") cheese. I cut the zucchini into rounds and pre-cooked them in the microwave in a covered dish with some salt, pepper, and olive oil for about 10 minutes, until they had softened slightly. It worked really well.


I also cooked some frozen spinach in the microwave, as I usually do. Then I sauteed it with some onion and garlic in olive oil, and seasoned it with nutmeg, salt, and black pepper. All that was left to do was put the lasagna together and bake it.


I made the lasagna mostly with yellow tomato sauce from our tomatoes, adding a little bit of red sauce too. In all, I put in at least half a liter of tomato sauce, one large zucchini, a pound of frozen spinach, a container of ricotta, and as much mozzarella as you see in the photo above. Here are the layers, from bottom to top: 
  1. a thin layer of tomato sauce drizzled with olive oil
  2. a first layer lasagna noodles
  3. partially cooked zucchini rounds
  4. ricotta cheese with some tomato sauce drizzled over it
  5. a second layer of lasagna noodles
  6. cooked and seasoned spinach
  7. mozzarella cheese with tomato sauce drizzled over it
  8. a third layer of lasagna noodles
  9. rounds of fresh tomato with some tomato sauce and olive oil drizzled over them
  10. grated Swiss (or cheddar, etc.) cheese

18 comments:

  1. That looks so good.

    Just like you I'm scotché to my tablet, and shift from one website to the other to get as much information as I can get on Irma's progress and the desolation it left behind.

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  2. A. and I have been glued to the TV all day, as the temps in WC reached 100 F, since my cousin and his wife just moved to Port Saint John earlier this year, and our former neighbors moved to Port Charlotte last year. So far they are all safe - they evacuated.

    On another note, I made a double batch of 'Ken's" collards. I have two collard trees that produce year round. Luckily A. has come to enjoy them, and I just found out that my sister also appreciates them. I do freeze some too, since most of our neighbors have not come around to this specialty. Tant pis pour eux! (Spellcheck wanted that to be "Want pis pour tux.")

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    1. Obviously, Spellcheck is monolingual ;-)

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  3. Thanks for your messages yesterday which I have just picked up. Good luck with your appointments and don't worry if you are just too busy at present to meet up. We hope and expect to be back next year at least twice so can catch up then if it suits you better.

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  4. Gawd that lasagna looks good.

    I think the coverage was riveting because the scale of the storm was unprecedented for the Atlantic, non?

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    1. This is a lasagna summer for us, and it will be a lasagna fall and winter because every time I make one, half or two-thirds it goes into the freezer.

      As for the hurricane, I won't regain my peace of mind until it's clear that the thing has turned northwest instead of northeast and that N.C. won't be its next target.

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  5. I know that the news this morning shows (and says) that the storm is heading away from the NC area, so I hope you're able to take a deep breath. We, too, have had on the coverage non stop.
    Judy

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    1. Judy, one map I saw showed the area at greatest danger of flooding from the Irma rains is... St. Louis. Hope that doesn't happen.

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  6. I can tell you that the storm is headed west. Our schools are closed today and tomorrow and the wind is blowing hard already this morning. We have power so far... Your lasagna is one of a kind today- most people have no yellow tomato sauce lol.

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    1. Hope you don't get flooding there, E. I don't think you'll get high winds, unless by some misfortune a tornado spins through.

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  7. Light rain and some wind in NW NC, with rain into Tuesday night. Slight wind advisory but only gusts up to about 40. We're at the edge of the rain, I think, and I'm hoping it will all just peter out. Like you, I grew up with these things, and I've been watching them for a long time.
    As it looks now, I'm hopeful that it won't get over to the coast near your mother. The one to watch is Jose, which seems to be futzing around in the northern Caribbean, and with luck it won't go north.

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    1. Emm, you're in western NC, right? People don't realize how big our states are. You might be as far as 400 miles, 650 kms from where my mother lives. Anyway, I hope you don't get heavy rains. I'll keep an eye on José.

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  8. We were glued to the TV on the weekend too. My niece and her family live in Orlando. The storm went right there. They sheltered at home because their house was built post "Andrew" and the storm was predicted to be on either coast and not down the middle. They expected wind but not what they got. They are ok and have power again already. I was thinking about your mother too.

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    1. MA is the person I worry about most, along with my sister, her big family, and my cousins who still live on the Carolina coast. They were spared this time, unless José gets nasty.

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  9. My apologies for this comment not relating to your post, but one where you put your tomato skins on the compost, can I suggest that you try drying them until they are bone dry then grinding them with a little salt and pepper into a fine powder to be used as a seasoning on anything you think suitable, you can use a variety of vegetables, I use a mixture of tomatoes, red peppers, chillies, red onions, garlic and cucumber ( the cumulative pulp from making gazpacho) but have also tried other variations.
    This can be used in many ways to enhance cold or hot food, just give it a try.

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    1. Thanks for the idea. I'll try it. We still have plenty of tomatoes to harvest.

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    2. it also works with fruit skins when wanting to add a different dimension to savoury dishes, let me know how you get on, I will be most interested as I have been following your blog for some time.

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  10. We had about two inches of rain last night, based on my scientific water-in-the-flowerpot-on-the-deck method of collection. Some blustery winds, too. Now, it's pretty much gone up into Virginia.
    I was trying to reassure you by commenting, I do watch the entire state and then some.

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