Every morning, every good, calm morning, I browse the food blogs.  Most mornings I print off a few recipes.  The recipes then sit around for a while and I revisit them from time to time.  Eventually, I do try some of the recipes.  Very few of the recipes I repost “as is”.  Some recipes show promise and I work with them for a bit (I have been working on a recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cookies for a few months now).  I probably post (or plan to post) about 50% of the recipes I test.

This morning I found this recipe.  This afternoon I printed it off, picked two pounds of tomatoes from my garden, and went to the store for some fresh mozzarella.  This evening I made the recipe (since our temperatures have finally dropped about 25 degrees in the last two days, I was OK with turning on the oven for 45 minutes).  This lasagna was creamy, cheesy and fresh tasting,  lighter than regular lasagna, but still rich.  Since there are so few ingredients in this lasagna that, if you decide to make it, be sure your tomatoes are the BEST and your olive oil is the best you can get.  Although this pan of lasagna looks very small,  it would certainly serve four people.

The original recipe can be found at SortaChef, One Hot Cat in a Woodfired Kitchen.  I changed the Béchamel Sauce to more closely resemble the flavor of one I have made many times before (adding nutmeg, allspice and Parmesan cheese).  I also added some chopped fresh basil (thanks to a suggestion from my friend, Jeanne) and oregano, and changed the method a bit.

Fresh Tomato Lasagna

• 2 pounds fresh ripe tomatoes (don’t use tomatoes purchased at the supermarket)
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, preferably buffalo, sliced thinly or shredded
• 4 Barilla no-boil lasagna noodles
• 3-5 cups water at 150º (use half hot tap water and half boiling water)
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh basil (more or less to taste)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (more or less to taste)
• approx. ¾ teaspoon salt

For the Béchamel Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk (I used 1%, but whole milk is traditionally used)
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon finely ground pepper (or more to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• dash of allspice
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375º.

Pour 3-5 cups very hot water (about 150 degrees) into a loaf pan or casserole dish and slip the no-boil noodles in one at a time. Let noodles soak for 15 minutes.

Make the Béchamel sauce. Heat milk in the microwave for one minute. Melt butter in a quart-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is barely melted whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn off heat. Whisk in one-third of the milk and incorporate thoroughly before adding the next third.  Be sure the sauce is smooth before you add more milk. Once you have successfully added all the milk and the sauce is hot and smooth, add in the salt, pepper, nutmeg and allspice. Whisk in the egg.  Turn the heat back onto medium and cook the sauce for 2 minutes. Stir in the grated Parmesan. When the cheese has been incorporated, remove sauce from heat, cover tightly with a lid and set aside until ready to use.

Slice 8 ounces of Buffalo mozzarella (or another fresh mozzarella) into ¼ inch pieces. Slice the tops and bottoms off of the tomatoes and discard or reserve for another use. Cut the rest of each tomato into ¼ inch rounds (or just chop coarsely). Coarsely chop the basil and oregano.

In glass loaf pan build the lasagna in this order:

• A layer of uncooked tomato slices, pack as many in there as you can.  Drizzle with your finest olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 t. salt, 1 t. basil and 1/2 t. oregano.
• 1 lasagna noodle
• ¼ of the mozzarella
• ¼ of béchamel sauce spread evenly to all edges of the pan
• Continue the sequence with remaining noodles and filling, finishing with a layer of tomato slices drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, basil and oregano.

Bake at 375º for 40-45 minutes, until béchamel has puffed up and the edges are bubbling.

Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Thanks for dropping by my kitchen today!