A friend gave me this recipe a ZILLION years ago, but I’ve never tried it, because, although it was delicious when I had it at her house, the recipe was four pages long and I was a bit intimidated. Recently, however, I was going through my recipe files, doing some culling and came across the recipe. As I re-read it, I realized it was just that long because it was handwritten in large (but lovely) script and wasn’t really as complicated as I was originally afraid that it would be, so I decided to give it a try. We all like spinach (and pasta), so I figured it would be a “go”.
Here goes:
Chicken Lasagna Florentine
(from Cindy Zraik)
Ingredients:
– 5 chicken breast halves, cooked, skinned and boned then chopped coarsely or 3 cups cooked chicken meat
– juice of 1/2 lemon
– 1 10 oz package frozen spinach
– 3 Tbsp. butter
– 1/2 lb. mushrooms
– 1 1/4 lbs. fresh lasagna noodles or 1 package dried
– 1 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
– 1 lb. imported ricotta cheese
– 3/4 lb. imported parmesan cheese, grated
For the Balsamella Sauce (Bechamel?):
– 1 stick lightly salted butter
– 1/2 cup flour
– 4 cups whole milk
– pinch of nutmeg and salt to taste
For the sauce:
Melt butter in large saucepan until bubbly. Add flour, stirring well over moderate heat. Cook the roux (that is the flour-butter mixture) until bubbly and it begins to brown slightly, approximately 5 minutes. Add milk to roux while stirring with a wire whisk until well incorporated. Keeping heat on medium, stir often until sauce comes to a boil. When thickened, turn heat off, add nutmeg and salt to taste. Set aside.
Set chopped chicken meat aside and sprinkle with lemon juice and pepper.
Cook spinach according to package directions; drain excess water then add spinach to balsamella sauce.
Slice and saute mushrooms in 3 Tbsp. butter over high heat 4 – 5 minutes then add to balsamella sauce.
In large pot, boil fresh lasagna noodles 2 minutes then remove from water and set aside on a towel. You will have to do this in 4 consecutive batches. If using dry lasagna, cook according to package directions.
Assembling the dish:
– Place a thin layer of sauce mixture on bottom of a 9 X 13″ baking dish.
– Put one layer of noodles.
– Spread 1/2 of the ricotta cheese in a thin layer.
– Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.
– a thin layer of sauce.
– Put one layer of noodles.
– Place all chicken meat.
– Over chicken, spread a moderate amount of sauce, reserving some for very top layer.
– Put one layer of lasagna.
– Spread the remaining ricotta.
– Sprinkle remaining mozzarella.
– More lasagna noodles.
– The remaining sauce.
– Finally, sprinkle all parmesan cheese on top.
– Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
OK, now let me tell you how I fiddled with it (not much, actually):
I sprinkled the chicken with Baby Bam before cooking (I grilled the chicken).
I added two extra layers of noodles (one of chicken, one of cheese), for a total of 18 noodles in the dish (6 layers of 3 noodles) and spread the ingredients a little thinner to accomplish this. This made the lasagna dizzyingly tall, but not a drop of it bubbled over in the oven – I was amazed.
I used unsalted butter and 2% milk, because that’s what I had on hand.
I cut the amount of Parmesan a little bit, because using 3/4 of a lb was just obscene – it was over 3 cups worth and I just couldn’t do it.
The verdict:
Both kids really liked this and Hubby LOVED it. I will make it without the mushrooms next time, because both kids balked at them a little, although they did try them. A huge hit all-around. One caveat: with all of that meat and cheese (and extra noodles), the completed lasagna was incredibly heavy. Hubby said that he almost broke his wrist trying to pull it out of the fridge (I had pre-assembled it early in day, because we had afternoon plans, so it was in the fridge until time to bake it) with one hand. It was a little “solid” (not very saucy and/or gooey), maybe because of the extra noodles, or maybe because I made the sauce a little too thick, but it was still yummy.
Green Beans with Browned Butter
This recipe is from one of those Betty Crocker recipe magazines at the grocery checkstand. Sometimes those are great, other times not so much, but this was really good. The kids both picked up the lemon flavor and may have liked the beans better without the lemon peel, but still really good.
I used frozen green beans (cooked in chicken broth) and toasted the pine nuts separately in the toaster, rather than in the butter.
3/4 lb. green beans
2 Tbsp. butter (no substitutions)
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
Place beans in 1 inch water in a 2 1/2 quart saucepan. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 8 to 10 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, melt butter in 1-quart saucepan over low heat. Stir in pine nuts. Heat, stirring constantly, until butter is golden brown. Immediately remove from heat. Pour butter mixture over beans; toss to coat. Sprinkle with lemon peel. 6 servings (1/2 cup each).
The Jailhouse Roll recipe can be found here (time-consuming, but very yummy).