Recipes and Reviews

I've been trying to make a few meals a month that are as close to completely homemade/homegrown as possible. This lasagna is one of my most complicated yet. The sauce and veggies are from my garden, the pasta is homemade, and for the first time, I made most of the cheese. Where I didn't go homemade, I did try and buy local. The meats, milk and eggs were from local farms, and even the spelt for the flour was grown a few hundred miles from here. I guess I could have ground the meat myself, but I have to leave a few challenges for next time.

While it was time consuming to make all the different parts, it was also a lot of fun. And there is no arguing with the results, as it was one of the best lasagnas I ever made.

For the past 6 months, I've been experimenting with more whole grain pastas, with spelt being my new default. The nutty flavor of the spelt really comes out with tomato sauce based dishes, and the rougher texture holds on to the sauce. I use more liquid than I do with white wheat and semolina flours, and I let it rest longer to absorb all the liquids.

I currently use a food processor to make the dough, but you can use a stand mixer or mix it by hand.

This is an easy one dish dinner that my wife and I like to have every now and then. Use this recipe more as a guide to create your own warm pasta salad meals.

Sure I'm lazy like everyone else, for most pasta dishes I just grab a bag of egg noodles or spaghetti. But when I'm in the mood for lasagna or raviolis, I have to go with fresh homemade pasta. Of course, there is no way to make raviolis from dry pasta, but it really makes a much better lasagna as well. Not to mention, it's really easy and fun.

Being the gadgety sort, I mix it with my stand mixer and use a pasta maker to roll out the dough, but it is also pretty easy to mix by hand and roll out with a rolling pin.