{"id":240,"date":"2006-11-10T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2006-11-10T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sararosso.com\/index.php\/2006\/11\/10\/dishes-of-comfort-finding-home-away-from-home-in-lasagna\/"},"modified":"2011-11-12T23:37:38","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T21:37:38","slug":"dishes-of-comfort-finding-home-away-from-home-in-lasagna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/10\/dishes-of-comfort-finding-home-away-from-home-in-lasagna\/","title":{"rendered":"Dishes of Comfort: Finding Home Away from Home in Lasagna"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>[Flickr photo pools] Check out others&#8217; photos of Italy: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/groups\/italyinblackwhite\/pool\/\">Italy in Black &#038; White<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/groups\/52240278816@N01\/pool\/\">Photographs of Italy<\/a><\/li>\n<li>[Reading Blogs] Still not using an RSS reader? The Associated Press writes about what RSS feeds are<\/li>\n<li>[Ad blog] <a href=\"http:\/\/adverbatims.blogspot.com\/\">Adverbatims<\/a>: Hilarious, anonymous quotes from inside the world&#8217;s ad agencies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ivonne from <a href=\"http:\/\/creampuffsinvenice.typepad.com\">Cream Puffs in Venice<\/a> recently blogged about comfort food and her favorite dish of comfort and invited her readers to do the same. <\/p>\n<p>The issue of comfort food is something very close to my heart.<\/p>\n<p>When I first moved to Italy, I pined for many things that I couldn&#8217;t find here because food was one of the ways that I felt still connected to home. In that way, I was sharing a similar experience with those at home, a taste, a feeling, a memory attached to that particular experience. When I returned home for visits, I had prepared a list months in advance about exactly what would pass my lips in those short weeks. It was an emotional need. <\/p>\n<p>I actually blogged a few months ago about one of my unusual comfort foods, <strong>Dungeness crab<\/strong>. It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/26\/not-your-usual-comfort-food\/\">instrumental in my first trip back home after moving to Italy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In the months to follow, my mother and I started a furious exchange of her recipes via email and I started to catalogue them and try to recreate them here as best as I could. As I started making myself more at home here, I stopped obsessing as much about food back home and my list of &#8220;must eats&#8221; when I return in the summer dwindled considerably. <\/p>\n<p>Needless to say my search to recreate my mother&#8217;s lasagna, the taste that meant home to me in so many ways, has been a long battle. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, the casualties of this war to find a perfect lasagna are still quite delicious. <\/p>\n<p>To me, lasagna is very synonymous with family, because we knew that whenever we made a tray of it, we&#8217;d need help finishing it and therefore it made its appearance at most of our family gatherings. A belly full of lasagna was a common medium for our family discussions around a table that could last hours as we digested.<\/p>\n<p>The type of lasagna I ate growing up is that which is largely popular in the States, the Neapolitan version which uses ricotta. My Italian ancestors are also from the Naples area, so most of the other lasagne I ate were made similarly. Most American restaurants offer this type of lasagna. I had no idea another version existed until I moved here, and like so many other myths about Italian food in America that we hold as true in the old country, the lasagna Bolognese (meat sauce and bechamel) is actually the version that is more diffused throughout Italy and considered the &#8220;standard&#8221; lasagna. <\/p>\n<p>I kept my eye out for the <strong>big, thick lasagna noodles with the wavy edges<\/strong> that are synonymous with lasagna back home. Yet I kept finding only these thin sheets of pasta about 6 inches long that don&#8217;t even requiring pre-cooking! These of course are the traditional lasagna noodles. This required a bit of adjusting mentally, but they are nice as they can reduce prep as well as final cooking time (around 20-25 minutes instead of 50) and make the lasagna quite a bit lighter. <\/p>\n<p>The incorporation of <em>besciamella<\/em>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B%C3%A9chamel\">bechamel sauce<\/a>, is probably the other big change for me. I love the layer of crispy <em>besciamella<\/em> and <em>parmigiano<\/em> on top of the lasagna when it comes out of the oven. It protects its soft underbelly of chunky meat, sauce and thin noodles and provides a great contrast in texture for your mouth.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/265296380\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/117\/265296380_da9c79bf81.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Lasagna fresh out of the oven\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>When I made this lasagna I used packaged ricotta because if you&#8217;ve ever had to wait in line at the deli counter when you get off work, you know that it takes an extra 20 minutes compared to other times in the day (you know, when people are working). And that&#8217;s my reality if I shop to cook something that evening.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately I found the ricotta to be much too creamy and not chunky enough, and therefore when mixed with the egg, it lost its sturdiness and form. Next time I will definitely use the fresh ricotta from the deli or local cheese supplier. In the States I found the packaged ricotta to be more of a chunky consistency that adds a lot of body to the lasagna, but there was very little fresh ricotta around to compare it with.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/265296402\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/95\/265296402_05fc37b3d7.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"My lasagna\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Then I decided that I would try to make a &#8220;Green Lasagna&#8221; which is made using pesto and besciamella, except that I wanted it a little heartier, so I alternated my mother-in-law&#8217;s homemade pesto on the noodles with a layer of meat sauce and a little cheese on the following layer, and made what I called &#8220;<strong>Lasagna Tricolore<\/strong>&#8221; because of the green pesto, red sauce and the white mozzarella. <\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/293294927\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/120\/293294927_8b6988adf4.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"pic 290\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Of course, my mother&#8217;s lasagna is still the original lasagna in my heart and makes its appearance on important occasions. <\/p>\n<p>And in the meantime, I&#8217;ll wade my way through variations on the lasagna theme in my search for comfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Flickr photo pools] Check out others&#8217; photos of Italy: Italy in Black &#038; White and Photographs of Italy [Reading Blogs] Still not using an RSS reader? The Associated Press writes about what RSS feeds are [Ad blog] Adverbatims: Hilarious, anonymous quotes from inside the world&#8217;s ad agencies Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice recently blogged&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/10\/dishes-of-comfort-finding-home-away-from-home-in-lasagna\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-food","7":"category-italy","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-3S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":515,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/10\/something-new-snapshots-of-italy\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":0},"title":"Something New: Snapshots of Italy","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've had a lot of people comment to me, \"What happened to the cultural aspects of your blog, those little quirks of living in Italy like Santas gyrating to the Yellow Rose of Texas or wearing booties and a cap and nothing else at the gynecologist?\" Those moments still happen,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":527,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/19\/quinoa-and-salted-ricotta-for-livestrong-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":1},"title":"Quinoa and Salted Ricotta for LiveStrong Day","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"April 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: Barbara has extended the deadline to participate until April 27th! I don't normally post on a Saturday, but this is no ordinary Saturday. In a few minutes, I'll be leaving on a fast train (not a jet plane) to go to Florence, where some 30-odd expats will be getting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Event","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/blog-event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Quinoa and Salted Ricotta for LiveStrong with a Taste of Yellow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2255\/2423969715_b5577ea775.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/03\/26\/not-your-usual-comfort-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":2},"title":"Not your usual comfort food","author":"Sara, Ms Adventures in Italy","date":"March 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Make your own: [Marshmallow Easter chicks] [Thin Mint cookies] [Spicy hot Marshmallows] Better movie than book: The Constant Gardener So I grew up spoiled, especially where food is concerned. California, land of plenty, ingredients from everywhere. Oh yeah, and having a great cook for a mother doesn't hurt. My stepfather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5909,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/27\/italy-food-bucket-list-part-2-13-more-delicious-things-to-eat-in-italy\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":3},"title":"Italy Food Bucket List, Part 2: 13 More Delicious Things to Eat in Italy","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm going to continue my list of delicious things to eat in Italy with another installment. Together this series will make up an Italy Food Bucket List\u00a0you need to seek out and try while in Italy!\u00a0Read Part 1 of the Italy Food Bucket List here. Something missing from the list?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Burrata, Ms. Adventures in Italy by Sara Rosso","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_9084_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_9084_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_9084_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_9084_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_9084_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/17\/a-wedding-in-sicily-and-a-sicilian-food-feast-the-desserts\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":4},"title":"A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food Feast: The Desserts","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of my last post about the A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food Feast! 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I thought I'd sift through my food memories (and some locations, too) to share the best of 2016 with you, and hopefully give you a few items to add to your own food lists. A few you may have seen if you follow me on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Italian aperitivo, Ms. Adventures in Italy, by Sara Rosso","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_0712-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_0712-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_0712-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_0712-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_0712-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3504,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/3504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}