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Lasagna With Caramelized Radicchio, Onions & Crispy Pancetta

Yield: Serves 8

Prep Time: 1 hr

Cook Time: 1 hr 40 mins

A unique flavored lasagna that combines sweet caramelized onions with bitter radicchio and salty pancetta between layers of egg noodles and creamy béchamel sauce.
Ingredients:

Bechamel Sauce:
6 Tablespoons Of Butter
1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
4 Cups Milk
Salt
White Pepper
Nutmeg
Lasagna Noodles:
4 Cups Unbleached Flour
5 Extra Large Eggs
Pinch of Salt
Lasagna Filling:
3 Medium Large Onions
1 Medium Head Radicchio Lettuce
2 1/2 Cups Diced Pancetta
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Cups Fontina Cheese Cut Into 1/2 Inch Dice
1 1/2 Cups Grated Pecorino Cheese
Ground Black Pepper
Directions:

To make the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, and once it is completely melted and bubbling, add the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon.
Cook for a minute or two until the flour just begins to take on some color, then slowly start adding the milk, whisking continuously to prevent lumps from forming.
Continue to simmer until the sauce begins to thicken, stirring often.
Season with a pinch of salt, white pepper and nutmeg, and set aside until you are ready to use, by pouring the sauce into a glass bowl and covering with a buttered sheet of plastic wrap.
To make the pasta, mound your flour on a large pastry board, or the counter and make a well in the center.
Break the eggs into this well, and start to scramble each egg with a fork as it is being added, and start to incorporate the eggs and flour by slowly bringing more flour in from the inside edges of the well.
Continue adding the flour to the eggs until they are no longer runny.
Using your hands now, bring the outside edges in, forming a large mass on your board. (Use only the amount of flour needed to form a soft ball.)
Begin to knead the ball of dough as you would bread, pushing it down with the heel of your hand.
Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and satiny, for about 8 minutes.
Wrap the prepared dough in plastic wrap, and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
Use a pasta roller or roll by hand to make long sheets of pasta 1/4 thick. (I use my Kitchen Aide table mixer with the pasta attachment and roll my past to the third last position.)
After rolling, cut into 12 inch long strips, and precook in boiling water for 30 seconds, then place in ice water.
Dry and set aside on clean kitchen towels.
For the filling, peel and thinly slice the onions.
Core the lettuce and shred with a sharp knife.
In a heavy frying pan, heat the olive oil and cook the onions over slow heat until soft and golden brown, about 45 minutes.
Remove the onions to a bowl and cook the radicchio in the same pan until it has wilted and begun to brown, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove to a separate bowl.
Cook the pancetta in the same pan until crisp.
To assemble the lasagna, first scoop a ladleful of the sauce and spread across the bottom of the pan.
Add a layer of noodles and then thinly cover these with more sauce.
Sprinkle some of the onions, radicchio and pancetta on top of the sauce and then add another layer of the lasagna noodles.
On top of this layer first add some of the sauce, and then sprinkle some of the diced cheese on top.
Sprinkle with some of the grated cheese and some black pepper.
Continue to layer twice more in the same manner, covering the top layer with sauce and cheese, and remaining pancetta.
Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 40 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned on top.
Let the lasagna rest 10 to 15 minutes before cutting and serving.