On Comfort

We turn to comfort foods for a variety of reasons: illness, cold, nostalgia. Today, in the midst of preparing the lasagna recipe below (which I also created today), I received a phone call informing me that a friend had died tragically and unexpectedly. Few things can comfort us in times like this, with the feelings of powerlessness and sadness that grief and shock bring. Creating something substantial, something delicious, something warm, messy and unpretentious is the best therapy I've found. The only thing better is sharing it with loved ones.

Lasagna

½ pound ground lamb
1 zucchini, cubed
2 carrots, coarsed chopped
¼ pound button mushrooms (portobellos would be good as well), sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 big handfuls (1/2 a 5 ounce box) baby spinach, coarsely chopped
1 big handful cherry tomatoes, quartered
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 ½ cups cottage cheese (ricotta would work if you want a sweeter cheese)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 small jar homemade marinara (2 cups or so)
Enough lasagna noodles to make 3 layers (12 for my pan, 4 per layer)
4-5 thin slices of fresh mozzarella, torn into thirds

Preheat oven to 375. Place tomatoes, 1 T olive oil, and vinegar in a small baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, or until tomatoes being to fall apart. Remove from oven and let cool.

Place lamb, zucchini, and carrots in a dry pan (the lamb has plenty of fat – no need to add more), season with salt, pepper, and oregano and sauté until lamb is browned. Add mushrooms and 2/3 of the garlic, and cook for 2 -3 more minutes, until mushrooms turn brown. Add marinara and bring to a boil. Turn off heat.

In a separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, spinach, tomatoes, basil, and remaining garlic until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and add the remaining olive oil, then boil the noodles until not quite done, about 7 minutes.

In your pan, spoon a small bit of the lamb mixture and of the cheese mixture. Smear the mixture along the bottom, then cover with a layer of noodles. Top with the remaining lamb mixture, spread evenly. Cover with a second layer of noodles, and top with the remaining cheese mixture, spread evenly. Add the final layer of noodles, and place the mozzarella slices over the top layer of noodles.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, or until cheese is browned.

On Reviews

I thought I'd officially post some reviews of the books I mention here
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pollan is as passionate and as thorough in this book as he was in OD. The book has the potential to change the way you eat; it has already changed the way I think about grocery shopping. So why only 3 stars?



A lot of the information, even though it has been diluted from scientist to journalist, is frankly, boring. I recommend reading the first third and the last third carefully, and skimming the middle, lest your eyes glaze over at the umpteenth mention of Omega 3 or 6.


View all my reviews.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Michael Pollan's writing has something of the ethereal about it - his passion and thoughtfulness about food, and the necessarily interlinked social, political, economic and environmental issues involved with our food, inspire without muckraking. He presents incredibly well-researched reasons for opting out of the industrial food market, but he does not make the same mistake that many of us do and assume that our food options are either industrial or organic. He looks at local food economies, and ponders ways for people to feasibly eat ethically. In the pursuit of ethical eating, Pollan does not shy away from looking at the life and death consequences of what we eat (in a very literal sense).



The premise of the book is the philosophical question of the omnivore's dilemma. In other words, many non-omnivores are so specialized that they do not think about their food choices. Food for them is not a risk, whereas food is risky for the omnivore, particularly early omnivores who operated without the benefit of a food culture, and modern omnivores who operate within a very fraught food culture. Pollan divides the book into 3 sections, each exploring one modern "food chain" from its beginnings and each ending with a meal born of that food chain. He looks at it from a scientific as well as personal side, and the two collaborate each other very nicely. The writing is beautiful, and the information well researched. If you care about food, read this book.


View all my reviews.