jumpy jumpy vitamins « Re-working recipes, round one

Re-working recipes, round one

Last night was the first attempt to re-do some of our favorite recipes in a more vegetarian style. I think this’ll probably work best if you can see where we started — my adaptation of Giada de Laurentiis’s baked rigatoni with béchamel.

Baked Rigatoni with Béchamel, non-veg style

Béchamel — makes four cups

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 quart whole milk

1 small onion, peeled, trimmed of ends, and halved

1 dried bay leaf

Pinch nutmeg

Pinch pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Before we begin: YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE MILK OR THE FINISHED SAUCE TO BOIL IN ANY PART OF THIS PROCESS. If you do, then the sauce will not work!

In a small saucepan over low heat, warm milk, onion, and bay leaf for 30 minutes or until rather warm (100 degrees F or so). Discard the onion and bay leaf and reserve the warm flavored milk.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, add flour and whisk for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and pale blond. Slowly add the warmed milk and whisk continually for about ten minutes or until the sauce is thickened and velvety. Remove from heat and add nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Everything else — serves six ordinary people or three people with my appetite

1 lb dried rigatoni

4 cups Béchamel sauce (as above)

1 cup shredded cheese that melts well — Asiago and Fontina work beautifully here, by themselves or together

1/2 lb prosciutto, sliced thin then cut into thin strips

3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp olive oil

Grated Parmesan or Romano for the top

Preheat oven to 425 F. Use the olive oil to grease the bottom and sides of a 13×9″ glass or ceramic baking dish.

Warm Béchamel if it is not already there. (Remember - don’t let it boil.) Add half the shredded cheese and all the prosciutto and whisk until the cheese is melted and the prosciutto is well-mixed.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt liberally and add rigatoni. Cook for a few minutes less than the package directions; we’ll finish cooking in the oven. (It should be chewy, but not al dente.) Drain.

Combine the partially-cooked pasta with the enhanced Béchamel and pour into greased baking dish. Top with the remaining shredded cheese, dust that with some grated Parmesan or Romano, and dot the whole thing with the softened butter. Bake for 25 minutes or until the sauce bubbles and the cheese on top turns golden brown. Let cool for five minutes, then serve either on its own or with a green salad.

It’s a little more labor-intensive than we normally do, but the effort is well worth it, especially on cold rainy/snowy/icy/blah nights like we had last night. You can also assemble everything, then cover it and stash it in the refrigerator for a few hours before uncovering and baking.

Since we’re doing without pork at home now, we substituted 1 red bell pepper (cored, seeded, and cut into very thin strips) for the prosciutto. It was pretty good, but kind of bland. I think I didn’t compensate enough for the prosciutto’s saltiness, which was just enough to make the other flavors stand out. Also, in retrospect, I could have sliced a couple rings from the pepper and put them on top of the dish for presentation’s sake. (Then again, it was a very tasty pepper on its own, and I probably would have eaten several rings before they made it onto the dish. As it was, I ate quite a few strips while the pasta was cooking.

I think the next time I may either add more salt; melt a saltier shredded cheese into the Béchamel; or try a different vegetable or combination of vegetables. (I don’t want to make this into “Lots of Vegetables with a Little Pasta and Cheese Bake”, though; the pasta and sauce are the stars here.) Mushrooms would be pretty good with this. A jar of roasted red peppers or quartered artichoke hearts may also do nicely, if they’re packed in brine. I wouldn’t do olives here, though.