The greens-filled pasta was a big hit last week, so I’ve been thinking about other pasta combinations for the kale and dandelion greens I got in the last box. I was even considering making another batch of fresh pasta, but thought better of it. So I decided to make lasagne. I used to make vegetarian lasagne all the time, but when I started eating meat again, I was seduced by the deliciousness of ground ostrich or loose Italian sausage. But tonight I have no meat defrosted, so greens it was. I sauteed two leeks and half a head of green garlic, along with some pork cracklings (OK, I had some animal product available) then added the washed, chopped kale and dandelion greens. Since I was planning to puree the whole thing, I left the stems attached.<\/p>\n
When I made the filled pasta, I didn’t use any cheese, since I was serving it to a lactose-intolerant friend. Instead, I added some shitaake mushrooms and toasted pecans. I had leftover pecans, and added them to the greens, even though I also put a pound of light ricotta into the food processor as well. (And I now want to make my own ricotta, after seeing this story<\/a>.)<\/p>\n For a sauce, I sauteed another leek, a shallot and the other half of the garlic head (I’m running low on alliums this week) and then added a 15 oz can of tomatoes, which I had given a whirl in the blender. <\/p>\n To assemble the lasagne, I have 4 lasagne noodles left in my pantry, which I boiled (even though they’re the kind you can put in raw) so the finished dish would cook faster. I put a bit of sauce at the bottom of a square Pyrex dish, then two noodles, a layer of greens, a layer of sliced mozzarella (bought at the Mexican market across the street from Veggielution, not any kind of fancy fresh mozzarella), then a layer of sauce, and repeated. Baked for 20 minutes or so, until bubbling.<\/p>\n I was going to post a photo, but, while there may be someone who can photograph lasgne attractively, that person is not me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"