A Day Off In The Kitchen

First: My new favorite "midnight" snack (as in I come home from work at 9pm and am still hungry after being fed dinner) is sautéed medjool dates in olive oil and then sprinkled with fleur de sel, or if you're me and the two grocery stores you go to don't sell it, coarse kosher salt. Last week at my work we had a special event and served them as a sort of amuse-bouche, a precursor to the first course that each table got a bowl of. After the dinner service I was snacking on them and they were easily my favorite thing of the night (and that's saying a lot as there was fried kale and spicy tuna rolls). So I had to make them myself. And I had to add a cheese to accompany it, so I went with manchego. It's pretty mild as far as cheeses go, but I think it went well with the dates.

My first memories of pesto are from when I was very young. When we would have family over for a dinner in the summertime, my dad would grill salmon and make pesto to top it with. I liked salmon from a very young age, but to put a green sauce on top of it was something gross to me. Somewhere down the line I fell in love with pesto on pasta and eventually tried it on salmon. A year or two ago I was spending a Sunday afternoon going through my parents cookbooks and flagging recipes, a common event I would partake in (but rarely executed making the recipes). This was around the time that I fell in love with the Joy of Cooking, and saw a recipe for pesto lasagna. It was like a lightbulb went off. Why had I never thought of combining these two wonderful things? On Monday I had both school and work off for the holiday so I decided to spend it in the kitchen. When I looked in my copy of Joy, an older version, it lacked the recipe, but, with no fear, I concocted my own and I present it to you here:

Pesto Lasagna
Ingredients: 
(Serving Size: 6)
11 oz. pesto (Fresh pesto is great, but if you're in a rush/lazy like me, use Trader Joe's Genova Pesto)
1/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup marinara sauce (optional, but it adds a nice additional flavor)
1 1/2 cups ricotta
5 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano 
12 oz mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb. lasagna noodles (I used Trader Joe's No Boil-Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles) 

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small sauce pan, add pesto and half-and-half on low heat. This is to thin out the pesto slightly. Keep a close eye on this as the oil will begin to separate if heated too long. While waiting grate cheese. Once finished, pour a thin layer of sauce into a 7x11 glass baking dish. Then add a layer of noodles. Next add the ricotta, spreading evenly, followed by the two other cheeses. Pour a layer of sauce over the cheese, add noodles, cheese, and repeat for three or so more layers. The top the lasagna should be topped with sauce (I used store bought marinara sauce) and a little cheese. A small amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano should be saved to sprinkle over the top later. Let sit for ten minutes to allow noodles to absorb liquid. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Around 25 minutes, sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese. 

For dessert, I made Molly Wizenberg's Winning Hearts & Minds Chocolate Cake, and it was as heavenly as she had described it in her book. (unsalted butter and Ghiradelli 60% chips both work for this recipe)