White Mushroom Lasagna with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

Sense of Home Kitchen

According to the Huffington Post there are two New York City photographers cooking their way through all of Gourmet Magazine's recipes, photographing, and recording their results here.  That is quite the undertaking!  Gourmet magazine began publishing in 1941, it will take years to finish this project.  I can see the appeal, I have enjoyed many recipes first published in Gourmet, and imagine the understanding you would have of how recipes, ingredients, food trends, and even the language used in recipes, have changed over the years.  I am not sure I would have the focus, energy, and drive it would take to complete this project, I can be easily distracted, but I would love to read their thoughts after completing their project.

This recipe appeared in Gourmet back in 1994 and I wish I had discovered it sooner.  The red pepper sauce is so good I was licking up the last remainder of it from my plate.  Along with several other changes I made to the recipe, I kicked it up a notch by adding white pepper, a mild, almost unidentifiable source of heat.  Your kitchen will smell heavenly while you sauté all those mushrooms, the onion, and simmer the sweet peppers, my mouth waters just remembering the smells and tastes of this dish.

That swirl of balsamic vinegar adds another layer of flavor, served  with some crusty garlic bread you can't go wrong with this recipe for dinner.  Yes, I can see why Noah Fecks and Paul Wagtouicz wanted to spend time cooking (and eating) their way through years of Gourmet Magazine.  Just think of the education in cooking you would receive, they will be self-taught chefs by the time they finish.  Their site also has some of the vintage advertisements from the magazine, some of them a real hoot.

White Mushroom Lasagna with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce
~Sense of Home Kitchen, adapted from Gourmet, February 1994~

Serves 6 to 8

For red pepper tomato sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 large Vidalia sweet onion, finely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
a pinch dried hot pepper flakes
4 sweet red bell peppers, sliced thin
2 cups whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, or to taste

For white mushroom mixture:
2 cups fresh sliced white mushrooms
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 pound lasagna noodles
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese ( about 8 ounces)
2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 6 ounces)

To make red pepper tomato sauce:
In a heavy skillet measuring at least 12 inches across the top saute mushrooms in 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter along with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet and cook onion with garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste until softened.  Stir in bell peppers and tomatoes and cook, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until peppers are very soft, about 20 minutes.  In a blender or food processor purée tomato pepper mixture in batches, transferring to a large saucepan as puréed, and stir in vinegar.  Add mushrooms to sauce and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° F. and oil a 13- by 9-inch baking dish.

To make white mushroom mixture:
Chop white mushrooms fine.  In a heavy saucepan melt butter over moderately low heat.  Add flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes.  Add milk and whisk while bringing to a boil.  Stir in mushrooms, nutmeg, white pepper and salt to taste and simmer over low heat, whisking occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Boil lasagna according to package directions, drain and rinse in cool water, set aside.  In a small bowl toss together mozzarella and Parmesan.  Spread enough red pepper tomato sauce in prepared dish to coat bottom.  Over sauce in dish layer in this order: lasagna noodles, 1/3 mushroom mixture, 1/3 cheese, and 1/3 remaining red pepper tomato sauce.  Repeat twice, reversing order of red pepper tomato sauce and cheese at end of last round of layering so that cheese is on top.

Bake lasagna in middle of oven 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.


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