Early Summer Lasagne with Sweet Shelling Peas, Zucchini & Spring Onions

It was not my intention to only write two blog posts during the month of June.  I have had ideas to share…and recipes….  But as has been increasingly the case as the years have passed, June has been insanely busy.  So here we are and June is just about over.

I’m sad to see it go.  I love the farmers’ market in June…the end of the spring crops meet the beginning of the summer ones—making for inspiring abundance and variety.  The recipe I am sharing today takes advantage of that moment, combining the shelling peas of late spring/early summer with the first of the summer’s zucchini crop in a surprisingly light lasagne.

“Light” is probably not the first word that you associate with lasagne.  But I think on balance that this lasagne can be called light.  It doesn’t include tons of sauce…or heavy fatty meats….or gobs of stretchy cheese.  What it does include are loads of those aforementioned green vegetables of June…along with a whisper of béchamel, a touch of salty prosciutto (to bring out the flavor of the green vegetables) and just enough cheese to hold it all together.

I adapted the recipe from Frank Stitt’s Bottega Favorita.  I admit to reducing the cheese a bit—and adding the prosciutto—but by and large it is his delicious recipe, and I can’t take a lot of credit for it. 

What I can take credit for is the biggest change I made—changing from traditional dried lasagne noodles to no-boil noodles.  I have already sung the praises of “no-boil” on two previous posts so I won’t spend a lot of time on it here.  Suffice it to say I think they are fantastic.  It is unlikely I will ever make a lasagne using traditional dried noodles again.   If you have never used them this lasagne would be the perfect place to give them a try.

Early Summer Vegetable Lasagne

1 1/4 lb. (about 3) medium zucchini

Olive oil

Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 medium leek, halved, thinly sliced cross-wise and thoroughly rinsed

1 bunch spring onions, trimmed (use white and equal amount of green), or 1 sweet onion (like a Vidalia), halved—thinly sliced

2 T. butter, divided

2 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch strips

1 c. (240 g) whole milk ricotta

1 oz. (1/3 c) finely grated Pecorino Romano

1 T. finely sliced chives

Zest of one lemon

1 clove garlic, finely grated with a microplaner or smashed to a purée with a pinch of salt

Pinch of cayenne

1 1/3 c. whole milk

2 T. flour 

Pinch nutmeg 

8 "no-boil" lasagna (half of an 8 oz. box)

1 c. peas, thawed if frozen, blanched until just tender (refresh under cold running water) if fresh

6 oz. Fontina or Fontal, coarsely grated

1 oz. (1/3 c) finely grated Parmesan

Top and tail the zucchini.  Slice lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slabs (the widest setting on my Benriner slicer is perfect).  Spread the slabs in a single layer on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.  

Roast in a 450° to 475° oven until tender, beginning to brown in spots and most of the moisture has evaporated....about 10 to 15 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, melt a half of a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of oil in a large sauté pan set over moderate heat.  Add the leeks and onions along with a generous pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper and toss to coat in the fat.  Cook until the leeks/onions begin to sizzle and steam in the pan.  Reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight fitting lid, and cook until the leeks have collapsed and are very tender—this will take about 15 minutes for early spring onions and leeks....maybe 30 minutes or more for storage leeks and onions.  Uncover and add the prosciutto and stir to distribute evenly.  Continue to cook for a minute or two.  If there should be a lot of liquid remaining in the pan, increase the heat and cook uncovered until the liquid has mostly evaporated.  Taste and correct the seasoning and set aside to cool.

Place the ricotta, pecorino, lemon zest, chives, garlic, and a pinch of cayenne in a medium-sized bowl.  Mix until well combined, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare the béchamel: In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer; keep hot.  (Alternatively, heat the milk in a microwave proof container of some kind.)  In another medium saucepan, melt 1 1/2 T. of butter over medium heat.  When the foam subsides, whisk in the flour.  Cook stirring constantly for a minute or so—the roux will be bubbly and straw yellow.  Remove from the heat and pour in half of the hot milk, whisking constantly until smooth—it will thicken immediately.  Add the remaining milk.  Return to the heat and stir constantly until the sauce returns to a simmer.  Taste and season as desired with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

When you are ready to build the lasagne, oil a square 2-quart baking dish (an 8 1/2- by 8 1/2-inch Pyrex is perfect) and bring a shallow pan of water just to the boil and remove from the heat.  Arrange these two items...along with all the other components—on your work space so that you have easy access to everything.   Add two of the noodles to the pan of hot water.  Spread a couple of tablespoons of béchamel in the bottom of the oiled dish.  

Lift the noodles out of the pan. (They should not be soft or flexible at this point...you're just giving them a head start by soaking them briefly—less than a minute.)  Let the excess water drip back in to the pan and arrange them in a single layer in the prepared baking dish.  Add a couple more noodles to the pan of hot water (to soak while you build the first layer).  Spread/daub a third of the ricotta mixture over the noodles, 

followed by a third of the onion mixture, a third of the peas, 

and a third of the zucchini slices.  

Drizzle a scant third cup of béchamel over all and finish with a scattering of a quarter of the Fontina (1 1/2 oz).  

Beginning with the noodles, repeat this layering two more times.  Finish with the last two (soaked) noodles, the remaining third cup of the béchamel (spreading evenly)

and a scattering of the remaining Fontina mixed with the Parmesan.

Cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil that has been brushed on the underside with olive oil (or sprayed with pan spray), tenting the foil slightly if possible so that it isn't touching the top of the lasagne.  Bake in a 350° oven until the Fontina on top has just melted—about 25 to 30 minutes.  Uncover and continue to bake until the lasagne is bubbling around the edges and the top is beginning to brown around the edges...another 10 to 15 minutes.  Let the lasagne rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  Cut with a sharp knife and serve.  Serves 6.

Notes: To make a 13- by 9-inch lasagne, increase the recipe by half.

(Recipe adapted from Bottega Favorita by Frank Stitt)

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French-Style Baked Eggs (Oeufs en Cocotte) with Spring Onions

I love eggs.  I love them on things, in things…and all by themselves.  I can’t imagine a life without eggs.  They really are a perfect food.  Over the years I have written countless posts that feature eggs…from the simple (poached, fried, baked on a bed of vegetables)...to the more complex (frittatas, tortillas, quiche, savory bread pudding)…to desserts where eggs play a prominent and irreplaceable role (ice creams, custards, tarts, bread & butter puddings).  I am not alone in my feelings. Yesterday as I was reading some of the tributes written about Anthony Bourdain, I happened across his thoughts on eggs:  “An egg in anything makes it better.”  Quite so.

I have for years included a classic French egg dish (Oeufs en Cocotte) in my spring brunch class.  I have always intended to post a recipe for this dish, but have refrained for a couple of reasons.  The first is that versions of this recipe can be found everywhere….both in cookbooks and on line.  But this of course has not stopped me with other classic recipes when I thought I had something to add to the conversation.  So the main reason is really the second one.  And that is that this dish is deceptive in its simplicity.  It requires being engaged with your senses in a way that is difficult to describe.  I can give some guidelines…but you will have to practice getting it done just to your liking in your kitchen…with your equipment.  (As one writer said when describing how to know when an egg en cocotte is done:  It’s “…the egg dish that's done when it's done.”) The good news is that you will get to eat eggs while you practice.   And since Oeufs en Cocotte are fantastic for brunch…or lunch…or dinner—accompanied by all kinds of delicious vegetable and meat side dishes—you should be able to create lots of opportunities to practice. 

The nuts and bolts of method for Oeufs en Cocotte are easy to describe:  Butter a ramekin. Add a few cooked vegetables.  My favorite thing is softly cooked leeks or spring onions…and a little cream—but you could add almost anything:  cooked greens, a vegetable medley like ratatouille, mushroom duxelles, a bit of ham or smoked salmon, a thick tomato compote, etc…

When you place your garnish in the ramekin, make a little divot on the center.  This will help center the yolk.  Crack an egg into a small dish and then tilt the egg into the prepared ramekin, being careful to center the yolk as much as you can. 

Pour a little cream over the top…or add a dab of butter…and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Place the ramekins in a baking dish lined with a towel.  When you are ready to bake, add boiling water to the pan to come half way up the sides of the ramekins.  Cover with foil and bake, uncovering a couple minutes before you think they will be done.  When they are done, serve right away (with buttered toast).    

So what exactly is “done?”  To me these eggs are perfect when the white is just set—but still a bit delicate and trembly—and the yolks are a barely thickened liquid.  Some people like them when the whites are a bit more solid and the yolk is even more thickened.  But this difference is a narrow window—and either way is, as far as I am concerned, a successfully baked Oeuf en Cocotte.  Visually you can tell when the white is done—it will go from clear to white.  Even if you have poured a thin film of cream over the top, you will still be able to see when this happens.  The problem is that once this happens, the yolk will be well on its way to setting too.  (Whites begin to coagulate between 144° and 149° and yolks begin to coagulate between 149° and 158°.  From 160° to 180° the whole egg gets progressively firmer until it becomes fully coagulated and hard.)  Herein lies the rub—an uncooked white is unappetizing…and an overcooked yolk, while not unappetizing, is not the goal of this dish.  If you pull your eggs out of the oven too soon, the white will be undercooked…too late, and the yolk will be hard…and the length of time between these two outcomes might be just a minute or two.

I have given an oven temperature and a range of cooking time in my recipe below—but this is just to get you in the ball park.  You will need to look at the eggs....perhaps prod the surface of the egg with your finger…or jiggle the ramekin itself to see if the eggs are where you want them. When you are first getting started, inserting an instant read thermometer in the white (right next to the yolk…but not in the yolk, as this will cause the yolk to break before it gets to the eater) will tell you a couple of things.  It will give you a temperature—I think you should be around 155°—and it will give you the added visual clue that the egg is done because when the white is done, the tip of the probe will come out clean (you can use a paring knife to test this latter thing if you don’t have an instant read thermometer).   And of course it is important that you do all of this checking quickly so that your oven temperature doesn't drop drastically.

The eggs bake best in a moderate to moderately hot oven.   They will bake well at higher temperatures, but your window of time when they are just right will be narrower.  You will have a much wider window of time if the temperature is low—but too low and they will take a longer and much more unpredictable length of time to bake (you and your fellow eaters will be standing around, tapping your toes, while the toast gets cold as you wait).

It is for this latter reason that you want to make sure your water bath (the point of which is to stabilize the ambient cooking temperature—helping the eggs to cook uniformly, protecting the edges of the egg until the center bakes) is made with boiling water (not just tap water).  Loading a full pan of hot tap water into the oven will significantly lower the temperature of the oven and lengthen your cooking time by an unpredictable amount. 

By the same logic, if you are feeding a crowd…and perhaps putting a very large pan—or two or three smaller pans—of eggs into the oven, you might want to start out at a higher oven temperature (a sufficient volume of boiling water will still lower the oven temperature).  When I prepare 32 eggs in 4 to 6 pans (in two ovens) for my classes, I bump the oven temperatures up to a 450° to 500° starting point.  I am able to observe with an oven thermometer that the oven temperature drops almost immediately after I put the pans in the ovens to below 400°.   Some ovens recover well enough that you don’t need to alter the temperature for a large number…or be careful to heat your water to boiling.  All ovens are different.  If you bake/cook a lot, you probably already know if you will need to make some of these adjustments.  If you don’t know, then making Oeufs en Cocotte would be a great exercise in getting to know your oven better. 

One final observation.  I have seen several recipes that encourage you to put two eggs per ramekin for “larger appetites.”  This seems like a bad idea to me since it will necessarily put egg whites in the center of the ramekin….and not the yolks.  Since the center will be the last spot to come up to a coagulating temperature.  Keeping the yolks runny in this situation will probably mean that there will be undercooked white in the center.  While true that the yolks coagulate at a slightly higher temperature than the whites…and it might be technically possible to get the whites in the center set and still have two runny yolks…this would be a difficult thing to pull off.

If all of this is more detailed information than you like, I would encourage you to just print the recipe and jump in.  If you have difficulties in your first attempt, then return and read the above tips (which will make much more sense after you have some practice).  I would never want an excess of explanation to discourage anyone from trying to make Oeufs en Cocotte.  Once you have made them a time or two you will know that they are actually quite easy.  And they are a classic that belongs in everyone’s repertoire…perfect for a festive brunch…or a dinner for one when you are feeling under the weather…or just when you feel like pampering yourself.  

 French-style Baked Eggs with Spring Onions

1 c. thinly sliced spring onions (use roughly equal quantities of white and green)

1 to 2 T. thinly sliced green garlic (optional)

1 T. unsalted butter
6 T. Heavy cream
4 large eggs (room temperature)

Preheat oven to 375˚F.  Butter 4 4 oz. ramekins or custard cups.  Line a roasting pan with a kitchen towel or a double thickness of paper towels and place the custard cups in the roasting pan.  Set aside.
 

In a medium-sized sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the spring onions and green garlic and toss to coat in the butter.  Add a pinch of salt, cover and cook over low heat until the onions are wilted and tender. If they release a lot of liquid as they cook, uncover during the last few moments of cooking to allow the liquid to evaporate.  Set aside briefly to cool.  (The onions may be cooked ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.  Bring to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.) 

Divide the onion mixture among the buttered ramekins.  Spread the mixture out, mounding it up a bit around the edges—you are making a "nest" for the egg that will help center the yolk.  Drizzle 1/2 T. of cream into each ramekin.

One at a time, crack eggs into a small bowl and then transfer the egg to a ramekin, centering the yolk as much as possible as you do.  

Carefully pour a tablespoon of cream over each egg.  Sprinkle each sparingly with salt. 

Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until it comes up to the same level as the eggs in the ramekins.  Cover the pan with foil.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Uncover and continue to bake until the white is opaque and just barely set—the yolk should still be liquid—another 2 to 4 minutes. (If you like, you make carefully insert an instant read thermometer into the white right next to the yolk—be careful not to pierce the yolk.  (The temperature should read somewhere between 155° and 160° for jiggly white and liquid yolk.)  Remove the pan from the oven.  The eggs will hold in their hot water bath for a few minutes.  If you know you will need to hold them, undercook them slightly as they will continue to cook as they sit.  They should be served as soon as possible.  Sprinkle each with a bit of freshly ground black pepper and serve with buttered toast.

Serves 4

Notes & Variations:

• You will probably have to experiment with baking times in your oven. I have given what works in my oven. Classically, oeufs en cocotte are baked uncovered, but this produces a hard surface and an undercooked white in my oven. You will find some sources that recommend as little as 7 minutes baking time (Julia Child). The initial temperature of your eggs will also make a difference—if your eggs are refrigerator cold, consider allowing them to sit in a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes before cracking them into the saucers. 
• If you like, sprinkle a bit of finely grated Parmesan or Pecorino over the egg before baking. 
• The onions may be omitted for the simplest of baked eggs. 
• Replace the onions with the same quantity of thinly sliced leek—one leek should yield a cup of thinly sliced leeks. 
• Instead of onions, any finely cut, cooked vegetable may be used—diced sautéed mushrooms, a spoonful of ratatouille, minced braised artichokes, a few cooked fresh peas, etc. 
• You may bake as many or as few ramekins at one time as you like (a French-style baked egg makes a wonderful lunch for one!). Simply adjust the size of the pan that you use for your hot water bath accordingly. For a baked egg for one, you could use a small oven-proof sauté pan or a metal pie pan. For two or three, a medium-sized sauté pan works well. Etc.

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