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DOROTHY
FLESHMAN
DORY’S DIARY
Snow spurs a
community’s
generosity
Armed with shovels manned by
human power, small gas-driven trac-
tor-type machines, and a huge yellow
plow, the snow finally gave way to the
blade. And there was plenty of it.
As I stood by the window and
watched the clean white flakes gath-
ering and deepening across lawn, side-
walk, and street, a different kind of
beauty took hold, marked only by deer
and cat tracks.
It was a scene that had unfolded for
days at a time much like the ones I had
seen years before when I would have
joined the shovel brigade to clear a path
from house to animal sheds to feed and
water the stock, carry in kindling for
the wood box, then beat a hasty retreat
from the cold and blowing snow to the
warmth given out by the wood- or coal-
burning stoves.
That was fun, we thought from a
child’s viewpoint, because Dad led the
way doing the heavy work and Mom, left
behind in the house, would be preparing
good-smelling victuals. We younger
ones had it best both ways.
If my older sister and younger
brother worked on the front steps from
porch towards the county road for our
tromp later towards school, I may have
stayed behind and turned the crank on
the milk separator once the milking
had been done. Each in our own way
we willingly did our chores as part of
the family circle.
When fun time came, we were out
with snowballs tossing, rolling big balls
to stack in series of three to top with
an old hat above the smallest one and
put rocks for eyes and smiling mouth.
Later there would be sledding, coming
in to warm ourselves by the fire and
drink hot chocolate while our mittens
lost their icy crystals.
The scenes of my being a child in
winter changed in a twinkling and now
my mind saw the same snow scene, but
George and I were the parents and the
children were our own three sons.
We no longer had much stock to care
for, no cows to milk or hay to pitch, no
wood to carry since heat in the house
came from an oil-burning stove.
The trip to school, though, remained
much the same — students walking the
distance each direction. The difference
between the two was that in my child-
hood the sidewalks and streets were
mostly cleared by folks shoveling outside
their own houses and places of business
and the school-bound walked where they
found clear places, many times down the
streets where only a few cars came by to
make a track in which to walk. Now our
three sons did likewise but with subtle
changes in the use of machines and more
cars to help clear the way. Also, there
was more time for building snowmen,
igloos, sledding, and learning to ski.
The present scene outside my window
had to come back into focus on the kind
neighbors, friends, and other unknown
workers with any tools at hand from
handheld shovel to home-owned small
walking plow to the big mechanized
yellow one clearing or stacking big
mounds of snow into bigger cluster hills
where space allowed just a few yards
away from my window. Dirt from the
street scooped up with the snow dark-
ened the mounds as well. With the
machinery at hand, it all took such a
little while and traffic was opened to all.
It all seemed for my benefit though
since my driveway and sidewalks were
included on this street in town, no longer
the huge expanse of county on the hill. I
now saw men and women alike working
the snow but the children were riding
to school in big yellow buses, with cars
aplenty, and I wondered how many of
the drivers/riders knew how far they had
come from our early days of tromping
the long way to school wrapped in heavy
coat, cap, scarf, mittens and galoshes
with books and lunchpails in arms after
the morning chores were done.
Now as an old woman, I stood by
the window in a furnace-heated room
and watched this part of the scene that
I hoped would never change — humans
caring for other humans, known or not,
just because they carried the spirit of
humanity. How grateful I always feel
for this scene that seems not to have
changed in my lifetime.
May there always be those who are
physically able who will see to the needs
of others who are unable. My gratitude!
Living
A battle of lasagnas
B
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
By GRETCHEN McKAY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Casseroles have long been
a favorite for family meals and
gatherings, because one-pan
dishes are usually easy to make,
a dream to portion and can feed
a crowd.
Lasagna is a particular
favorite for many because
who doesn’t love the mag-
ical marriage of cheese, pasta
and tomatoes? Add that it can
be composed ahead of time,
taking some of the stress out
of weeknight cooking, and
you’ve got the perfect comfort
food. It’s especially life-af-
firming in winter, when we
crave rich and hearty dishes
jam-packed with carbs.
Like just about everyone else
impacted by COVID-19, I hav-
en’t had many chances to cook
for people outside my family
lately. Then last weekend, on
a visit to Washington D.C., my
daughter brought the boyfriend
we hadn’t yet met to dinner.
I saw this as my chance to
try what the internet says is
the best lasagna ever. In 2001,
John Chandler of Dallas sub-
mitted a version of his moth-
er’s lasagna to the food-fo-
cused online social networking
service Allrecipes.com. In a
bold move, he named it the
“World’s Best Lasagna,” and
the rest is history.
In the years since, the recipe
has been rated by nearly 20,000
home cooks and has the most
reviews of any recipe on the
site, according to Esmee Wil-
liams, the site’s consumer &
brand strategy vice president.
Last year, at the height of the
pandemic, it was Allrecipes’
third most-viewed recipe behind
only Good Ol’ Fashioned Pan-
cakes and Easy Meatloaf.
Thanks to its solid five-star
status, the recipe has also been
“pinned” tens of thousands of
times — despite its 20 ingredi-
ents and 2 ½ hour cook time.
“Clearly this recipe has the
flavors and features cooks are
looking for — especially when
feeding a crowd,” Williams said
by email.
The recipe, she added,
exudes a “feeling of authen-
ticity” while using readily
accessible ingredients. It also
appeals to cooks who like to
tweak recipes — using turkey
instead of beef or adding red
wine instead of water. And a
great title “communicates confi-
dence,” Williams said.
Which brings me back to the
boyfriend. What better way to
make a good first impression
than with a dish that’s enjoyed
cult status for more than a
decade? Game on!
Italian variations
While Chandler’s recipe
takes hours to prepare, with
a host of ingredients, many
American lasagnas do not. For
that, we can probably thank the
popularity of dried lasagna noo-
dles and the recipes printed on
the boxes.
Raise your hand if you’ve
ever thrown some no-boil
lasagna noodles into a pan
with a jar of spaghetti sauce,
ricotta and shredded mozza-
rella. It might not be the real
deal, but it’s a reasonable fac-
simile, right?
Yet the standard-bearer that
originated in Emilia-Romagna
in northern Italy in the 19th
century was never meant to be
a quick, everyday meal. It was a
dish for feasts and other special
occasions made with long-sim-
mered meat sauces, velvety
bechamel and delicate, fresh
pasta rolled by hand.
“It’s a cultural thing,”
explained food historian and
cookbook author Francine
Segan in an email. “In Italy, the
custom is to prepare a special
dish like lasagne with care and
time for Sunday dinner and spe-
cial occasions. It takes hours.”
In the U.S., home cooks tend
to value free time more and
Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS
We put the World’s Best Lasagna up against Classic Green Lasagne alla Bolognese.
want things done quickly, “so
we take short cuts.”
The dish is older than you
might think: What Italians
know as lasagne (plural for
the noodles) is derived from
the Greek word laganon — flat
sheets of dough cut into thin
strips. As early as the 4th cen-
tury B.C., Etruscan frescoes in
the Tomb of Reliefs in Lazio
near Rome depicted the basic
tools and ingredients to roll and
form pasta, Ms. Segan noted, as
well as banquets showing diners
enjoying an early version.
The first written recipe for
a lasagna-like dish appeared in
the 1st-century cookbook “De
Re Coquinaria” by the ancient
Roman gastronome and writer
Apicius, says Ms. Segan. It
wasn’t until the Middle Ages
that a recipe approximating
modern lasagna — boiled flat-
tened dough sprinkled with
cheese and spices — appeared
in the 14th-century cookbook
“Liber de Coquina.”
Every Italian region has its
own traditional recipe — and
they don’t necessarily include
tomatoes (which didn’t arrive in
Italy until the 1500s). Lasagne
al brodo, baked lasagna in
broth, is a typical dish of
Molise made with a chicken
and veal stock, while Lasagne
all’Ascolana, from Ascoli prov-
ince in the Marche region, fea-
tures fresh egg lasagna sheets
layered with a sauce of ground
beef and minced chicken gib-
lets cooked in wine and sliced
white truffles.
In southern Italy, lasagna
is generally made with dried
sheets of pasta layered with
rich meat ragu, ricotta and
mozzarella. In the north, espe-
cially in Bologna, the most
popular version includes
fresh egg pasta colored
green with spinach and lay-
ered with ragu, bechamel and
Parmigiano-Reggiano.
In 2003, the Italian
Academy of Cuisine added the
recipe for Green Lasagna alla
Bolognese to its archives, even
though Neapolitan lasagna
— which includes fried meat-
balls, ricotta, mozzarella and
hard-boiled eggs — has the
most historical documentation,
according to the magazine La
Cucina Italiana.
Best ingredients
You’re much more likely to
find the famed Italian casserole
offered by the pan, family-style,
for takeaway meals and ban-
quets. That’s because lasagna
is relatively expensive to make
and quite labor-intensive. “And
to be honest, there’s more inter-
esting food items out there,”
says Frank Vitale, the chef
and owner of Cucina Vitale on
Pittsburgh’s South Side.
He offers three versions on
his takeout menu with 24-48
hours notice: cheese, vegetable
and meat, with prices ranging
from $59.95 for a 10-by-12-
inch pan of cheese lasagna that
serves six to $129.95 for a large
pan of meat lasagna that serves
20 All are made with fresh
pasta sheets and herbed ricotta
mixed with grated Romano
and mozzarella cheeses. The
bolognese for his meat lasagna
is slow-simmered for nearly
four hours using beef, veal and
pork in addition to pancetta and
short ribs.
“What makes a good
lasagna is like anything else
— use the best ingredients,” he
says.
Fiore Moletz, who owns
Della Terra in Zelienople,
Pennsylvania, is another who
offers lasagna family-style as
a takeaway, and it’s also occa-
sionally on the menu on week-
ends during cold weather. He
agrees that the dish is only as
good as its components.
“It’s so simple it has to be
done with the best ingredients
and techniques,” Moletz says.
For him, that means 7-12
layers of fresh pasta topped
with a mix of creamy bechamel
and bolognese that’s been
cooked very slowly over low
heat with prosciutto ends
instead of pancetta. He also
tucks fresh basil into the pasta
somewhere between the fourth
and fifth layers.
“The way you build flavors
is super important,” he says.
Whatever recipe you choose
— we offer both the World’s
Best Lasagna and a Classic
Lasagne alla Bolognese to
compare and contrast — be
sure to follow these simple
rules from the experts:
• Thinner is better when
it comes to noodles, whether
you’re making it from scratch
or choosing a boxed variety.
You also probably want to
avoid no-boil noodles, as it
can make your lasagna heavier
and drier if there’s not enough
liquid in the sauce.
• Use the best ingredients
you can afford — premium
cream, real Parmesan-Reg-
giano, Italian plum tomatoes
and quality meats.
• Cook the sauce until it’s
thick, or your lasagna will be
watery.
• Choose a casserole dish
that’s deep enough for easy lay-
ering, and make sure the final
layer of pasta is completely
covered by sauce and topped
with cheese.
• Don’t overcook! Fresh
pasta is quite soft and will
get mushy if baked too long.
Even if you use boiled lasagna
noodles, you’re really just
rewarming all the ingredients
once the pan goes into the oven.
• Let the lasagna sit for at
least 15 minutes before por-
tioning it, or it will disintegrate
into a sloppy mess.
• Above all, have fun while
you’re creating your master-
piece. It’s lasagna, after all.
“Take your time and enjoy the
process,” says Segan.
WORLD’S BEST
LASAGNA
You need to be a meat lover to truly
enjoy this lasagna. You also need to
have a few hours, as the sauce needs
to simmer on the stove for 90 minutes
before it’s layered with the noodles
and cheese.
I made the sauce — which is on the
sweet side — a day ahead to speed
the process at dinner time. My family
of carnivores, including my daughter’s
boyfriend, gave the lasagna a resound-
ing thumbs up. It’s heavy and filling.
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
½ cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5-ounce) cans canned
tomato sauce
½ cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons dried basil leaves
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Prepare sauce: In a Dutch oven,
cook sausage, ground beef, onion and
garlic over medium heat until well
browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, to-
mato paste, tomato sauce and water.
Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds,
Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt,
pepper and 2 tablespoons parsley.
Simmer, covered, for about 1 ½ hours,
stirring occasionally.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted
water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles
in boiling water for 8-10 minutes.
Drain noodles and rinse with cold
water. In a mixing bowl, combine
ricotta cheese with egg, remaining
parsley and ½ teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Assemble lasagna: Spread 1 ½
cups of meat sauce in the bottom of
a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Arrange
6 noodles lengthwise over meat
sauce. Spread with one half of the
ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a
third of mozzarella cheese slices.
Spoon 1 ½ cups meat sauce over
mozzarella and sprinkle with 1/4 cup
Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers and
top with remaining mozzarella and
Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil. To
prevent sticking, either spray foil with
cooking spray, or make sure the foil
does not touch the cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 25
minutes. Remove foil and bake an
additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15
minutes before serving.
Serves 12.
— Allrecipes.com
See, Lasagna/Page B2