Weekend Eating: Free-form Lasagna

Take squares of fresh pasta, some really fresh fillings like pesto, butternut squash, or rosemary butter, layer them all in a tumble, and what do you get? Free-form lasagna! Or so says Russ Parsons at the LA Times in his article Lasagna, liberated. He argues that while calling this lasagna might be debated by Italian nonnas everywhere, the deconstructed version lets the pasta really shine.

We noticed some food bloggers following his lead and we think we might try this too. He includes recipes for butternut squash lasagna, zucchini lasagna with lemon-thyme cream, and lasagna with slow-roasted tomatoes and pesto. But of course the general idea is to go with your tastes and to use whatever is in season where you are.

Comments (5)

the idea has been around quite a while: look up recipes under fazzoletti pasta

In my experience, lasagna starts to come apart into a mess of deliciousness once you cut a chunk off the main pan and fork into it anyway.

Slightly on topic, can anyone recommend a good pasta machine? I'd love to buy one and I hear that some models are not that expensive.....

I ate something like this in Umbria a couple years ago--it was filled with thin slices of potato, vegetables and a bit of bechamel and cheese. Delicious.

I saw Tyler Florence make a vegetarian one on Food 911 the other day with peas, string beans, and asparagus. It made me want to try out free-form lasagna, and now, having seen this, I will definitely try to make one for dinner next week. Thanks for giving me that extra push!