Tonight's delight is a Chicken Cordon Bleu inspired take on lasagna! No tomato sauce here. We use an elevated sauce featuring thyme and the balance of chicken with ham and cheese present well on homemade pasta. We dedicate it to Pier Luigi Farnese who in the early 1500's served as duke of Castro as well as Duke of Parma. While being a rather ruthless leader, he spent his time pursuing other men with or without their consent.
Using the tastes of Chicken Cordon bleu in a lasagna might seem exotic, it will establish your reputation as a true chief.
Ingredients
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup Panko crispy bread crumbs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper
1 can (12 fluid ounces) Evaporated Milk
3/4 cup chicken broth – low salt
2 tsp mustard
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, cubed
1 ¼ cups shredded Guyere cheese.
12 cooked homemade lasagna noodles
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup chopped cooked ham
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (8 oz)
Additional chopped fresh thyme leaves if desired for garnish
Directions:
Make your noodles! With the help of a KitchenAid mixer it is much easier to make pasta so quickly.
Homemade Pasta Recipe
Ingredients:
2½ cups all-purpose flour, tapped through a mesh strainer
1 cup semolina flour, strained, plus extra flour for preparing
½ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, beaten + 1 egg beaten in separate bowl as needed
2 Tablespoons water
Directions:
Use a spoon to fluff up the flour within the container.
Use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Don't pack in the flour with your spoon or you'll get too much. Don't tap the measuring cup either. Just scoop it in.
Use a knife or other straight edged utensil to level the flour across the measuring cup.
Place 4 eggs, water, flour and salt in mixer bowl. Begin adding the water 1 tablespoon and add more as needed.
Attach flat beater. Turn to speed 2 and mix for 30 to 60 seconds. Add more water if the dough is too dry, in ½ Tablespoon increments.
Change out the flat beater for the dough hook. Turn to speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. Knead until the dough indents when you touch it. Remove the dough, Dust a cutting board with the semolina flour and knead by hand. you only have to hand-knead it for a minute or so after it was done.
Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it sit for approximately 20 minutes. This resting time is important!
Cut dough into four pieces before processing with pasta sheet roller machine. Take one piece and flatten into a rectangular shape. Adding flour to both sides. Be sure to cover the other pieces with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel.
Attach the pasta roller to your counter and set it to #1. Roll the pasta dough through. While still on #1, fold the dough in half and run it through again two more times.
Adding a little bit of flour on each side of the dough again, change setting to #2 and pass the pasta dough through the sheet roller. Do this twice and then twice each on #3. For lasagna you want a thicker pasta to hold up the layers so don't do the #4 setting. You will use that for pasta like spaghetti, etc.
Once you’re done, fold the pasta up gently and cover with plastic while you repeat the process for the remaining 3 pieces of dough.
For other types of pasta, add flour to each side of your long pasta sheet. Change the attachment to your spaghetti or fettuccine cutter.
Run the pasta sheet through and with your left hand, hold on to the pasta as it comes through the cutter. It's usually really long so cut it and then wind it around your hand to create a nest. Allow pasta to dry for a few minutes before boiling.
Your gorgeous pasta can be used immediately or allowed to dry before freezing.
When boiling your pasta, it only needs 3 to 7 minutes to boil.
For our lasagna, place a sheet of wax paper on the counter and sprinkle “lightly with flour”.
If you freeze the extra, never thaw them out before cooking as this makes them stick together.
Dump into boiling water and gently move them around in the salted water. Never clumps this way.
Lay out the cooked noodles on a lined baking sheet while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Sauce:
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon white or black pepper
1 can (12 fluid ounces) Evaporated Milk
¾ cup chicken broth, low salt
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, cubed
MELT butter in small saucepan. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Gradually add evaporated milk and broth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes just to a boil.
Stir in the cream cheese and grated Guyere. Always spray the grater first this makes it easier to clean. Stir until melted and add the ¼ tsp thyme.
Remove from heat.
Spread 1 cup of the sauce in bottom of baking dish; top with a layer of 3 noodles.
On top of noodles, spoon 1 cup of the chicken, 1/3 cup of the ham, 1 cup of the sauce and ½ cup of the Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat two more layers, starting with noodles. Top with remaining noodles, sauce and cheese.
Spray piece of foil with cooking spray; cover sprayed side down. Bake 35 minutes.
In small microwavable bowl, microwave 2 tablespoons of the butter uncovered on High 20 to 40 seconds or until melted. Add bread crumbs to bowl, and stir until mixed well; set aside.
Remove lasagna from oven; uncover, and top with bread crumb mixture. Bake uncovered 10 to 15 minutes or until bread crumbs are lightly browned, noodles are tender and edges are bubbly.
Let stand 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with additional thyme.
For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGw_cOgwa8&list=RDEhZba-P7R18&index=3
So happy to serve this to my Master Indy.
socialslave
To satisfy and restore.
To nourish, support and maintain.
To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,
to nurture, assist, and sustain
…..I cook!
Please buy slave's cookbook:
The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon
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Pier Luigi Farnese was the first Duke of Castro and the first Duke of Parma and Piacenza.
Pier Luigi Alexander Farnese was born in 1503 from the union between Cardinal Alexander Farnese (future Pope Paul III) and a Roman noblewoman.
His illegitimacy tormented Pier Luigi all his life, and doubtless contributed to the formation of his character. The nobility of Piacenza was frequently known to insult him as "the bastard son of the Pope." As the eldest and beloved son he was legitimized along with his brother Paul at the age of two in 1505 by Pope Julius II.
He was given a famous humanist tutor, and quickly developed a love of war and fortifications.
Alexander was, however, keen to make Pier Luigi the true head of the Farnese family and so arranged a favorable marriage alliance with Gerolama Orsini, daughter of the Count of Pitigliano. In 1513 the engagement contract was drawn up, and in 1519 the wedding celebrated.
Despite a loveless marriage, Gerolama remained a faithful devoted wife giving him four children and tolerating Pier Luigi's excesses, brutality, and extravagances.
Pier Luigi Farnese quickly became the stereotype of a mercenary soldier: wild and amoral. He had courage and daring and while strong and audacious was also sufficiently brutal to offend many observers. Nor did he always fight on the traditional side of the papacy.
In 1520, at the age of seventeen, he and his brother Ranuccio were already employed as mercenaries in the pay of the Republic of Venice. As a result, he served under the standard of Charles V - remaining with the emperor until 1527, he was present at the Sack of Rome of that year, in which he took part.
While his brother Ranuccio withdrew to defend the Pope; Pier Luigi crossed the Tiber and quartered his men in the family palace, thus saving it from destruction.
Luigi withdrew from Rome into the Roman countryside, taxing it without mercy and permitting a climate of theft and murder.
When his father was elevated to the papacy as Paul III in 1534, his first action was to make Pier Luigi's eldest son, Alessandro Farnese, a cardinal. But Charles V only reluctantly allowed the granting of titles to Pier Luigi agreeing an annual pension on the condition that the news was not made public.
The office of Captain General of the Church had become vacant, and Paul nominated his son. Pier Luigi traveled through the Papal States defeating pockets of resistance before arriving in triumph at Piacenza.
The Duchy of Castro operated as a functioning State within the Patrimony of Saint Peter. It possessed rich forests full of game, fertile vineyards and fields, and a great number of fortresses. The Pope also awarded his son the cities of Nepi and Ronciglione. Pier Luigi was tasked with repairing all the fortresses over which he was now feudal lord. During his life Pier Luigi gained a certain reputation for cruelty, ruthlessness and decadence. A particular scandal erupted in 1537, when he was accused of raping a young bishop Cosimo Gheri, who subsequently died.
Pier Luigi Farnese had married Girolama Orsini and sired four children. Letters exist from Pier Luigi's father, Paul III, reproaching him for taking male lovers when on an official mission to the court of the emperor; and another from the chancellor of the Florentine embassy detailing a man-hunt he had mounted in Rome to search for a youth who had refused his advances.
So historians feel safe in labeling him as a bisexual. While not exactly a “hero” he definitely shaped the course of Italian history.
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