The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.
This recipe challenged the Daring Bakers to make spinach pasta cut for lasagna, bechamel sauce and a country style ragu. I had a guest chef in the kitchen with me for the first time. My good friend, Karen, came over and we had a great time making it together. Here’s a picture of Karen rolling out the pasta. She did a much better job of rolling than I did.
It was my first time making pasta and my arms ached the next day from the ten minutes of kneading and the rolling. I thought the pasta tasted great, and my husband and my friend and her family loved it, but it was too much work for me to enjoy. I was exhausted that night. I think I should have made it over several days.
I made the ragu with chicken sausage and ground sirloin. I had to add another egg to the pasta dough to get it to come together. Other than that, I didn’t change much. I had the same problem as many Daring Bakers with the ragu looking a bit curdled, but you didn’t really notice it once it was in the lasagne.
Check out the hosts’ blogs for the complete recipe. Also, be sure and check out the other Daring Baker’s posts. There were so many great variations, including some yummy dessert lasagnes.
A big thank you to two of my new blogging friends, Coleen of Coleen’s Recipes and Barbara at Traveling Aprons for passing the Friend Award on to me. Be sure and visit their great blogs!
The award is accompanied with this message: “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.”
I am passing this award on to some of my new blogger friends:
Sara at Sara’s Kitchen
Elyse at Elyse’s Confectionery Creations
Judy at Judy’s Kitchen
Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Barbacoa Salad
I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies.
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
I made some pasta today, so I’m totally impressed with your pasta photos. I don’t think I’d tackle quite that much pasta…you were brave, LOL.
You are so cute! What a dish. I wish I could taste it!Looks fantastic!!
Your lasagna looks delicious. Sorry to hear that it was too much work to enjoy.
Congrats on your new award!
That looks great Barbara and well done for rolling it all by hand! Great pic of you too! :)
Thanks for the compliments! The picture is of my cute friend Karen! I’ve updated the post so there isn’t any confusion.
Look at you and all that pasta! Great photo! That said, your lasagne looks amazing! Nicely done!
Great job on your challenge and it looks delicious. I too had aching arms by the end of the day but it was fun though.
Despite the work your lasagna looks heavenly. How nice to have a friend to share the preparations with.
Thanks, Barbara!! I’m so flattered by this award; thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing! And you’ve put me in such excellent company!!
Speaking of excellent, your lasagna looks fabulous. I am SO impressed that you rolled all that pasta out by hand (with the help of Karen)! What a feat you two pulled off (and a workout for the arms)! The lasagana sounds totally delicious!!
Barbara Your Lasagna look great I always love veggie Lasagna.
Thanks for the award, I really appreciate it! Your lasagna looks amazing, it is a lot of work to make fresh pasta. Maybe that’s why I haven’t done it in ages :)!
your pasta looks great and how fun your friend came over to help!
You have a friend who *willingly* helped you roll pasta?!! I’m nearly speechless. Is she, even now, STILL your friend? Lovely job to you both!
I followed you over from Coleen’s Recipe’s and all that I can sas is WOW I’m sure glad that I did!!
I’m a caterer and am always looking for something yummy to bake/cook. This Spincich Lasagne looks delicious and I have to try it very soon.
If you have a moment or two of your life that you’d care to waste, please visit me at my blog and say hello.
Take good care and hope your weekend is filled with much love, joy and laughter and…..
Steady On
Reggie Girl
It looks terrific! Nothing compares to home-made pasta!!
That is definate dedication! Wow! You’re braver than me!
I’m so impressed with everyone who hand(arm)-rolled their pasta! Well done!
Hello Barbara
I am glad to hear you friend helped rolling the pasta, it looks very good, and sure you enjoyed the labour of your hands, with heart warming meal.
great job
The lasagna looks so good! I am not ambitious enough to make my own pasta! I also made a cream cheese pound cake this week that I had seen over at Smitten Kitchen. Oh, I love pound cakes….yours makes me want to make another one.
Mmm, your lasagne looks amazing =D! Congrats on the award.
Nice work on the pasta and am so jealous of your kitchen counter space!
Your lasagna looks scrumptious. I agree, it was a lot of work rolling the pasta – but so worth it in the end. Great photos!
I have never made homemade pasta, yours looks really good. I’m going to have to give it a try
That looks yummy. I am late getting started on the challenge. Getting ready to do it right now—-yikes. I am a bit nervous.
cooking is always better when it is shared with good company. Great job on the lasagna. They looked fabulous
Handmade lasagna? Wow! You rock! Looks fab!
It really is a work out, isn’t it? I used my KitchenAid for the kneading and my husband part of the time for the rolling. Despite all of that, your lasagna looks great. You are lucky to have had a friend come over and help you out.
wow, looks like you’re quite the pro w/ the pasta sheets! looks amazing!
This pasta looks so good, love that green color. I think my arms would ache too!
Very impressive work! Looks so yummy!
the look of your spinach lasagne is really inviting.
Great job! This looks like one delicious lasagne.
Great job! Your lasanga looks beautiful. After that arm workout, you and your friend need to have an arm wrestle to show off your hard-earned muscles. ;)
Great looking pasta and congratulations for rolling by hand – it’s too difficult for me :)
Hi Barbara,
I really enjoy your site and I feel like your information is very useful. I recently started a small food storage business and have created a website dedicated to helping people build up their emergency food supply. We were wondering if you would be willing to put a link to our site from yours. Our site is http://www.foodstoragedepot.com. Feel free to check it out and see what you think. You can put the link anywhere you feel that it would not distract from your own information. If this is something that you are interested in please contact me at this email address (taraivers@gmail.com) and we would be glad send you some of our product or you can pick an item from http://www.outersports.com. Thanks,
Tara
Great Blog. I will stop by again. I hope you will visit me. DCRose, All About Cakes.
Barbara, I guess I’m a bit late in accepting this award, but thank you so much! If I ever get my computer problems fixed, I’ll pass it on. (Luckily my posts are done a month ahead, so I don’t have to worry about those, but I’m having problems with Adobe Photoshop which led into other problems, and I’ve been all tied up with trying to get things fixed.) Love your lasagne. My hat is off to you. I’ve never made pasta.
Your lasagna looks amazing…and how nice is it to have a friend to make it with! ;)
This is such a great post! I really am amazed by you Daring Bakers. How incredible to make your own pasta! I understand about the rolling and kneading part. That is how I am feeling about working with fondant! I have no upper body strength.