Saturday Dinner by Catherina and Thomas

To celebrate the start of so many new people in the lab, we were invited to Thomas' and Catherina's place for an absolutely delicious 3-course dinner.

You will see how delicious it was once I upload all the pictures!!!

Starter: Thomas' Thai Seafood Soup 

Main Course: Catherina's Lasagne
(serves 6, so I actually made twice the below)

This is something I have cooked for ages and it has evolved over time, the nice thing is that you can adapt the recipe according to your taste. Here is what I did that Saturday:

I made a Bolognese sauce:  finely chop a large onion, a carrot, some celery root and some garlic, roast that in olive oil, then add 500 gr of mince meat (can be any species - I used beef on this occasion). Sprinkle with herbs (Oregano is good, I also added some bayleaf). Roast until brown, then add chopped tomatoes (2 tins), a bit of red wine, and let boil for at least 30 mins, season to taste and set aside.

For the veggie layer: Use 600 gr of spinach (I really wanted Swiss Chard, but there wasn't any to be had) and cook that with very little chicken broth and butter, salt, some chopped red chilly, pepper, nutmeg and garlic. Set aside.

Soak some Porcini mushrooms in red wine over night.

For the Bechamel: take a chunk of butter (about 60 or 70 gr), heat that, add flour and stir until this becomes a thick pasty goo. Then add milk, stir, add more milk, stir and so on (note, this burns easily, so don't go away and keep stirring) until you have the desired thickness (like a sauce). Stir in about 350 gr of grated Morzarella cheese (Waitrose has that, but self-grated Gouda also works). Season with a little salt (gouda needs no salt because it is so salty on its own), white pepper and nutmeg. Set that aside (but not for long, if this gets cold you'll never get it fluid again, so the sauce should be the last thing you do).

Square forms work best for lasagne: pour a little bit of broth into it, then put in a layer of uncooked pasta (all supermarkets sell pasta sheets, I used the wavy ones from Waitrose). It is ok if the pasta sheets overlap a little. Add a layer of Bolognese (half of what you have), scatter the Porcini mushrooms over this layer) then add a layer of uncooked pasta sheets. Then put the entire spinach and top that with some scoops of the Bechamel/cheese sauce (about half), cover with a layer of uncooked pasta sheets, add the rest of the Bolognese, cover with another layer of uncooked pasta sheets, then top off with the rest of the Bechamel over which you scatter the remains of the Morzarella from the bag (I never said this was a quick recipe ;) ).

Put into the oven at 180 - 200°C until golden brown (should take 25 to 30 mins) and serve with a salad.


Desert: Thomas' Masterchef Sticky Toffee Pudding