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Hey Alicia here with another ancestral recipe from Italy. And today's recipe is one that after I tasted it I couldn't stop thinking about. It was so good, I ate it from breakfast and lunch the next day (super healthy, I know). This lasagna was really that good. Thinking of it right now I'm tempted to go make it again.
Best Lasagna Ever
This lasagna is fairly simple and adapted from a recipe I found on Walks of Italy. It doesn't have a ton of cheese. It's swapped out with a delectable béchamel sauce, seasoned with a bit of nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Don't skip the nutmeg because it just adds this wonderful depth to the lasagna that makes it addicting. The ragu is stewed for an hour or more and the flavors develop making it so wonderful. And the freshly grated parmesan sprinkled on top is the perfect ending for this dish. If you wish you can add parmesan in the other layers, I didn't and I found it to be perfect. But make sure you use fresh grated parmesan because the Kraft stuff just won't cut it.
I made this in a 9x13 dish but if you make it in a smaller dish you could do more than 3 layers.
Please try this recipe! I honestly can't stop thinking about it. It's soooooooo good! Please try it.
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Alicia back again with another Danish recipe for you. We're Danish from my mother's side of the family, though we never really had Danish food growing up. This is probably because our ancestors moved to the USA in the early 1700's. So it's been very fun and delicious to experiment with Danish recipes this past month.
This month has been more difficult than past months though due to Danish food not being particularly common in the United States. Most of my google searches turned up Æbleskiver and Smørrebrød. So I decided to buy a Danish cookbook. I bought the kindle version of Hygge - Danish Food and Recipes. It is a great little book filled with family anecdotes and family recipes from the author Sidsel Munkholm. (And if you have Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, it's included in your subscription!) She also has a useful index of the recipes with their english and Danish translations. Last week I made a Danish pork roast with crackling, Flæskesteg. It was a really easy recipe and very delicious! Actually, I made a few mistakes and it was still delicious! Flæskesteg - Danish Pork Roast with Crackling
Flæskesteg is a dish that takes about 3 hours to cook but literally only 10 min to prepare. The tricky part will be finding the right cut of pork. Usually here in the states pork is sold without the skin on. But for crackling, you need the skin. Flæskesteg is traditionally a pork loin with skin, but can also be a shoulder roast (both boneless). I was fortunate to find a shoulder roast with skin attached at my local grocery store butcher. It did have a bone, but it was off to one side and it was a 5lb roast. So I just cut my roast in half to make two 2.5lb roasts, one with a bone and one without. If you aren't able to be as lucky as me and find the cut you need, ask your local butcher if they can help you out. You'll want a roasting dish or a glassware that has sides. I have a Pyrex set that I love. It has a smaller, shallow, rectangle dish that is perfect for a small roast like this. I'll link to it below.
This recipe is so easy you may be wondering how I could mess it up. Well, I was out of kosher salt when I thought I had it. So I used my coarse Himalayan salt. But this was a mistake because it made the roast a little salty (you can see the clumps of salt in the picture below). Kosher salt is better for this recipe because it is flakier and will dissolve better. My second mistake was that I accidentally cut down to the meat instead of just before the meat. To get the crackling perfect, you cut grooves along the top where the skin is, but you don't want to cut the meat. Well, I did that. Next, I didn't have all my skin directly face up. This made it so one of my cracklings was not crunchy at all because it had soaked up the juices from the bottom of the pan. But despite all these failings, this roast turned out so delicious and juicy. My 3 year old son was even asking for seconds. And my husband was devouring it.
Traditionally in Denmark this is served with boiled potatoes or red cabbage, and a gravy is made from the drippings. I decided to make mashed golden potatoes to go with my pork gravy. They came out beautifully and paired well with the Flæskesteg.
I hope that you are able to try this deliciously simple recipe. It's really so good! I'm thinking of making it soon. Let us know if you try it out.
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Hello! Alicia here with another food from my ancestry post. This time is a little different though because I have an injury that is making it painful to stand for long. It makes cooking difficult. So although I am in the midst of my Danish month, I was not able to make a Danish meal this past week. I decided I would instead pick my Favorite meal from each month so far.
If you're new, my family has been picking one country from our ancestry every month and each week we try to make a meal from that country. It's been a very fun experiment that you can see the results from in the slideshow below. If something looks tasty to you, clicking on the picture will take you to the post where I talk about that dish! Everything has been delicious so you'll be safe with any choice!
January: Germany
Our first month we picked Germany mostly because I wanted bratwurst. I think Brats are still my favorite, but paired with the Swabian Potato salad. Bratwurst have the best flavor, a little spicy (not hot but flavorful), and juicy. They pair perfectly with mustard.
The potato salad was best after being left in the fridge over night. And then I ate it all! So keep that in mind if you decide to make it. It is so good! I also loved the Black Forest Cake, and have honestly been thinking about it since I last had it. The only thing that stops me from making it again is thinking of all the calories. February: Ecuador![]()
This is a hard choice, but I think my favorite still stands as Encebollado. This fish and onion soup is amazing! I love the flavors. I love that it's traditionally eaten at breakfast. I love that I have cans of it brought from Ecuador every time some one visits.
Runner up would be Encocado de Camarón. The coconut and shrimp together were so delicious! March: Ireland![]()
So I stereotypically picked Ireland for March. And I'm glad I did. My favorite from this month I have made again already! Bacon and Cabbage Pie. It's actually easier than it looks, and our pie crust recipe is so delicious and easy. This also makes great leftovers, if you can get everyone to stop eating it the night you make it.
A runner up for me would be the Irish Stew. I'd say it's practically a tie. The stew was so good. Similar flavors as the pie, but with lamb instead of pork. And it's not an Irish stew if it's not made with lamb. April: France![]()
There is a reason the French are known for their cuisine. They have mastered combing delicate flavors to give you an amazing experience with every bite. It makes choosing a favorite difficult. My husbands favorite from France is theBoeuf Bourguignon. A very delicious and hearty stew, it has really deep and earthy flavors. So good.
I also really enjoyed the Gratin Dauphinois. These rich potatoes have no cheese, yet you still get a deliciously crispy top layer. And the nutmeg adds a richness and decadence to the dish. May: Denmark
May isn't over yet and I've only had chance to make two Danish dishes; Æbleskiver, and Smørrebrød. They were both delicious! I have made both of them twice already! I think I prefer the Smørrebrød mostly because I usually prefer savory to sweet. But this doesn't mean I'm not dreaming about making the Æbleskiver again already.
And there you have it! I hope you will try out some of these recipes, or try to find recipes from your ancestry to make. Please let us know if you do.
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Alicia here to continue my culinary adventure through France.
This week I chose Flammekueche, which I have made before, and loved! Flammekueche is from the Alsace region on the Eastern Border of France by the Rhine river. The region has a long and storied history. Many wars have been fought over the region and it has been conquered or just annexed by France and Germany. Alsace even has it's own dialect (language) that is being promoted recently to be learned in schools. Alsace is part of France now, but the region still has German influences in its culture. And that's why Flammekueche sounds German, but is a French food. I figure this fusion food is perfect since we have both French and German ancestors (remember we did German food in January). Flammekueche (Alsatian Onion Pizza)
Flammekueche is a thin crust onion and bacon tarte with a cream base. But in France it's more refereed to as a pizza. And also it's really delicious!!! Full disclosure, I have made this before. Last year Adrian and I did a very similar experiment, and I made Falmmekueche. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I don't know why I didn't make it again until now. It's actually very fast and easy. It's one of the reasons I love it. I think there's a perception that French food is fussy and difficult, but not all of it is! And this is one of those recipes that can be a regular in your menu line-up!
Last time I think I used ricotta cheese to make the cream. But this time I saw some other recipes that lightened the recipe up by using greek yogurt for the cream base. If you were in France you would probably use something likebreakfast cream, but that is not very common here in America. I decided I would just get a single serving size of 2% plain Greek yogurt, so I didn't have to have a whole carton of Greek yogurt. It was about 6oz of yogurt and 2 heaping TBS of natural sour cream. This recipe calls for nutmeg and you do not want to skip it. It is so delicious! And it compliments the strong flavor of the onion so well. I also used store bought thin crust dough because we were having a really busy day, but usually I use our crust recipe (and I like ours better). But store bought works in a pinch. I accidentally over-baked it the first time around in the oven, but even though the crust was more brown than I would have liked, it still came out quite tasty!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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