Daring Baker Challenge: Lasagne

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.

I had mixed feelings about this month's challenge. It seemed to be more cooking than baking and I was slightly disappointed at first. But then I started thinking about it. A few months back we made pizza and I was thrilled with that choice. Was it because it involved yeast? Was that what made it more "baking" to me? Wasn't lasagne just as much baking as pizza? Even more than that, I started thinking of why I joined the Daring Bakers' in the first place. It was to expand my horizons and make a recipe every month that I may not have tried.

After all this thinking (which lasted all of a few minutes), I was excited for this challenge. I have made spinach lasagne before and I really enjoyed it. The DB recipe was VERY similar (if not almost identical) to the recipe I made before and I was happy to have a reason to make it again!

The biggest component to this recipe is organization. I made the ragu the day before since it simmers for a couple of hours. I made the pasta the morning that I was going to serve it and it only took me about an hour and a half. Even though the bechamel can be made ahead of time and reheated, I chose to make it right as I was assembling the lasagne since it only takes about 10 minutes.

While it is definately more time consuming to make your own pasta, it is totally worth the effort. I love the taste of homemade pasta and this was no different!

Thank you so much to the hosts this month for picking a fantastic recipe! I had a blast making it! Make sure you check out the DB blogroll, as I'm sure there are beautiful lasagnes floating around today!