Riffing

During the winter, I stumbled upon an amazing combination of flavors for a lasagna: veal and dashi. I wrote about it here. This time around it was different, but took advantage of another exotic broth to create a standard-looking dish that had a surprising depth and complexity of flavor. In this instance, I used the last quart of barbecued pork broth from the freezer plus a healthy dollop of our basil/sorrel/nasturtium pesto to make the velouté, and ground turkey with a jar of our free-range tomato sauce for the… uh… sauce.

The combination of our super-sweet tomatoes and the pork/pesto liason made the turkey almost taste like ground pork–even sausage–in terms of all the body and aroma it gathered. The noodles were a jerusalem artichoke flour-enhanced semolina, which were OK, but next time I will roll out a custom pasta, probably heavy on some mushroom essence (powdered shiitake and/or duxelles of whatever’s growing in the woods) to give added profundity to the umamitude. So go forth, and slobber; the easiest way to take your lasagna to another place is by using a passionately smoky broth.

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10 Comments

  1. The Spiteful Chef
    March 16, 2009

    You’re getting buck-wild, Peter. Do you need a coloring book or something? Powdered mushroom pasta? Nasturtium veloute? Barbecued pork broth? Dashi lasagna? Wow. I’d drink barbecued pork broth out of a Keebler Elf mug in my pajamas for free. Sounds delicious.

  2. lisa
    March 17, 2009

    How did you make nasturtium pesto? All flowers, or flowers and leaves? I have a lot of leaves right now, but the plants aren’t blooming. Planted too far in shade, I think.

  3. peter
    March 17, 2009

    Kristie: That’s good, because I’m not sure you’d find too many people to pay you to do it. Although now that I say it, I realize that I’m probably wrong.

    Lisa: Nasturtiums like full sun. I used mostly leaves for this, and puréed the flowers in softened butter with a little lemon and salt (it’s also in the freezer.)

  4. Heather
    March 17, 2009

    No, the easiest way to take my lasagna places is in a car.

    My nasturtiums seeded themselves last fall, so I don’t have to do a thing this year.

  5. Brittany
    March 17, 2009

    As soon as the nasturtiums are blooming in my neighbor’s garden, I will steal them in the middle of the night (humming the mission impossible theme to myself)
    and make that pesto.

  6. cookiecrumb
    March 17, 2009

    I’m making up a big pot of corned beef broth today. (How trite.)
    I always save it.

  7. Brooke
    March 17, 2009

    Trust you to fancy up a lasagne more than I thought possible. Well done, Peter, I am slobbering.

    I gotsta make that pesto soon too.

  8. The Spiteful Chef
    March 17, 2009

    I get paid to do ALL SORTS of things in my pajamas. The privilege of having big gazongas.

  9. Heather
    March 18, 2009

    Which came first: Kristie’s boobs or her engagement ring?

  10. The Spiteful Chef
    March 18, 2009

    The boobs. But I’m pretty sure the boobs had something to do with the coming of the ring (holy Frodo!).

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