Vale is a good friend of Claudia. They had been friends since they were kids in Italy. She had cooked this lasagne for us before, and I loved it a lot. I asked her to come over and teach me this recipe and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I thought that we would have to prepare everything 2 hours before dinner time, but no, it took us just less than an hour.
Cooking with Italians is quite an experience, I think. Claudia, Noemi, and Valentina, they taught me different things, but it is proof that a part of cooking or knowing how to cook is so ingrained within us and differs according to our cultural background. Of course, anyone can learn how to cook Italian or French or Chinese, but there is an underlying difference, often very subtle, of how we approach cooking. I had tasted Claudia’s pasta, only drizzled with olive oil, with some grated grana padano, and it was somewhat complete, resolved. Noemi made some curried vegetable, and although it was not an Italian dish, she made it so simple and it ended up being so wholesome. When I look at the way we cook, as much as we try to do the same dish and to follow the same recipes, we have different ways, and perhaps different attitudes, to treating the ingredients, to cooking them, and we have our own ingrained idea of what an ideal taste is.
I had tried cooking pasta like Claudia did, using the same pasta, oil and cheese, but it didn’t taste the same. I still used a timer to make sure my pasta is al dente, but both Noemi and Claudia seemed to wing it all the time. I think even my al dente is slightly different. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s never truly the same. Growing up Indonesian, I favour hearty dishes and flavourful food. Back home we eat everything with rice, as a matter of fact, rice is the centre of every dishes; everything needs to have a big flavour so it won’t taste bland when you eat it with rice. Rice is the primary food because it both completes and balances the flavour. I looked back at the time when I was in my early twenties and I remembered putting so many things into my bolognese sauce (I was told nobody calls it bolognese in Italy. It’s just called Ragu); from dried oregano, red wine, and rosemary. Later on, I found out from Claudia when she gave me her mother’s ragu recipe, that it was so simple, and it was actually the best ragu I ever made. My bastardised version of ragu was, essentially, me cooking Italian the way I would cook beef rendang. I think the same applies to the Americanised version of Italian dishes, such as Disney’s Spaghetti Meatballs; they tend to be very fatty and full of salt.
Valentina’s Vegetarian Lasagna
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 brown onion, sliced finely
- 500gr frozen spinach, roughly cut into smaller pieces
- 1 block of smoked cheese, sliced into small thin layers
- 4 tablespoon of finely grated Grana Padano
- 250gr lasagna sheet
- 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- 800ml of milk, room temperature
- 80gr flour
- 80gr butter
- Preheat the oven to 200 degree.
- Fry onion with olive oil on medium-high heat until soft and browning. Stir in spinach until cooked thoroughly, add a couple of pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper to taste.
- To make the bechamel sauce, melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Once it melts turn the heat down to low and add in flour. Whisk until completely mixed. Pour in milk a little bit at a time whilst continue whisking until thickens. Add in nutmeg and salt to taste.
- In a medium lasagna pan, start with a little bit of bechamel on the base of the pan then arrange the lasagna sheets to fit. For the next 3 or 4 layers, add in portions of spinach, bechamel, sliced cheese and grana padano. On each layer make sure that there is enough bechamel to cover the sheets but not too much that it becomes too soggy. Finish off with a layer of lasagna sheets, bechamel and a good sprinkle of grana padano.
- Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Using a fork, pierce the layers to check whether the sheets are cooked and soft. Once soft, bake for another 5 minutes uncovered until slightly golden brown.
When we were cooking I kept asking them the exact measurements and how long it should be in the oven. I think that bothered them a little. They kept saying, ‘you just have to feel it’. We then talked about how our parents never use exact measurements when they cook, they just use their feelings, their ‘cooking instinct’. I guess then if there is such thing as an inter-national attitude to good cooking, it would be to use our feeling a little bit more. This is again, something that we need to develop through the years. And until then we just have to keep making cooking.
KITCHEN THINKING 