French Chef; Lasagne a la Francaise; 208; French Chef: Lasagne a la Francaise

We're having unexpected company, today, on "The French Chef". "The French Chef" is made possible by a grant from the Polaroid corporation. Welcome to "The French Chef", I'm Julia Child. What do you do when you have only a moment's notice and you've got unexpected company. Well, one of the great things to do is a lasagna, and this is "lasagne à la française", which means "in the French manner", and I should add that it should be also called "à la française aux ??", meaning "in the United States", because I'm not a little tiny French woman, though I may look so ??. So, lasagna, as you all know what these are, and the great thing is to estimate, and I think one nice thing about lasagna is that you can

pretty well estimate how much you need. I usually find that I've got three times too much pasta usually, but with lasagna, at least I've got the dish this size, and you want, say, four pieces for the bottom layer. Four for the middle layer. And, four for the top layer. And there are four extra, and I always think a little more is better than a little less, so I'm going to use the whole box of lasagna. And if there's anything left, I'll make lasagne Salade à l'américaine. And this is now to be boiled, and I've got a great big pot of boiling water. And In it all goes, and it's big enough so it'll fit, and somebody told me once that if you put a little bit of olive oil in the water, that sometimes that keep it from boiling over - I've never have had any problem boiling over but some people do. And I'm going to have three tablespoons of coarse salt. You're supposed to over-salt slightly and that's just, I think, salted

just about right. And then on the box-- and I'm not an Italian cook, so I follow the box, it's 15 minutes, so I'm going to set the timer to 13 from the time it started boiling, and then, we can estimate it. I mean, look at it, see if it's done. And now, because this is an Italiano dish, we'll have to have tomato sauce - and I love tomatoes anyway. And you have to have tomato sauce, but you've gotta have onions. So I got some great big onions because I think they're faster to peel than smaller ones. They said that these onions came from Peru because it wasn't the right season for them to come from Texas. And, I may not need all of this onion, but I can wrap it up in plastic if not. Cut her in half, and I'll use the bigger half. Chop, chop, chop. Very fast.

Remember not to get your fingers into this-- into the knife because fingers are not part of this lasagna recipe. There. I think half of that's going to be enough. And I'll chop them a little bit more. Peasant dish so I don't have to chop them very carefully and they're gonna be cooked. I think when you're gonna do something in a hurry, you want to do things that are rather peasant-y, because it's much faster. In France, they're very sensible about saying when things are roughly chopped, it's peasant, and when they're a little better chopped, it's bourgeois, and when it's a little - when it's very, very finely chopped and you've taken a long time over it, it is haute cuisine. And now, these onions are to cook, and to be stirred frequently, and then they should probably cook about 10 or 15 minutes, until they're translucent.

And you can cover them, if you want. I'm not going to cover, at this point. I'm going to set them over on a little lower burner. Well, no, I'm not even gonna cover them. If- If you don't know cook them well enough, they don't give out their flavor the way they should. And now, we have tomatoes and I'm gonna make a tomato sauce that has half fresh and half canned tomatoes and first, they have to be blanched, so I'll - so that they can be peeled, so that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, seconds exactly that they are to be in the water and then they're ready to peel. I think that's the nice thing about having a big pan of water you can do so many

things with them. Now we've done this a great many times. It's going to be to tomatoes concasse, which just means peeled, seeded and juiced tomatoes. See that skin comes off very nicely. They're a little tiny bit oily because of that olive in the water. Maybe next time when I'm going to do tomatoes I won't put olive oil in the water with the lasagna until after I've blanched the tomatoes. Of course holding tomatoes over a gas flame works very nicely too. If you have a lot of them, it's much easier to drop them into boiling water. There. Now. These get cut in half. If you're going to use tomatoes for salad also it's just- it's a good idea to

peel them this way because it doesn't cook them, they're not in long enough to now I'm going to- This is the juice part. You take your hand and squeeze the tomato and you see all the juice coming out and then there's those little seeds in there. And this is over a sieve so that we won't lose any of the juice and you see, if you're going to use the tomato for a salad or stuff it this is the way you do it and you do it rather gently. But the object is, in this case this would not be good for a salad, but I got all the juice out, and the seeds. You don't want to have to strain your tomato sauce. You want to- and you- and it's no good if you have the seeds in it. This is a very- this would be a very- this is a very typically French. You're always running into tomatoes peeled, seeded, and juiced. And now if you're going

to do them very carefully so that you will make a tomato fondue. You cut them- slice them carefully so that they remain in nice little slices like that. But, if you're going to do them for sauce they just need to be roughly chopped or as they say ?cog? hache. Con ?cat?, con ?cat?. Skin in there. And these are 2 tomatoes, and they will be about- about 1 cup, medium sized tomatoes of tomato pulp. Very often you run into this in a recipe where they say that you want- they want 2 cups tomato pulp and that's it and now for the canned tomatoes. The Italian plum tomatoes are much the best. And it says on them Italian peeled tomatoes and then on the other side it's all in

Italian. And it has this plum shape. Here it is open. This is going to go into a food mill and although they've peeled it they haven't seeded it so you have to put it through a strainer. I was actually was planning to- trying to strain out some of the some of the juice and use only the pulp. But. That would have been a little smarter. But that's all right. And now we have onions. I've already done the- have- some other onions that are quite- You can see these are not quite cooked. You're not going to get the proper- And here are some that are cooked and can you can see the difference. Now I'm going to divide these onions. Because I want- [clattering] [laughs] half of it.

Half of them to go into the lasagna itself. So I'm just going to take half of them out and set those aside. Cuz what would an Italian dish be without onions? And then the tomatoes are going to go in with that. Ideally you would let them cook uncovered and let them cook for a little while to release their juices. And then you would add your tomato. Canned tomatoes. I've neglected to say that I prefer the whole canned tomatoes to the tomato puree because I find that the to- canned tomato puree rather sweet and I don't really like the tomato sauce. If I have the time to make my own. And so this is just going to- Going to cook and I'm going to keep- I'll keep the rest of that under here in case I need it. And. I have Italian seasoning. So is this going to be Italian. I'm going to put that in

this is a combination of a little bit of everything. That's about half a teaspoon. We want some salt and pepper. Then that can cook away. You can add a little bit of saffron if you like and you can add some dried orange peel. And that should cook for at least half an hour and I really think the longer if you allow it to cook for an hour it's going to be even better. And I think you'll find that the combination of fresh tomato and canned tomato will give you a sauce that tastes really fresh. Now we're going to have to see how the lasagna is. Take out one piece and this should be somewhat al dente. So you cut off a piece and the best way to do it just to eat a piece. and when it's and when it's done it's ready to drain. That isn't quite done. [ding]

Only to show you how to do it and then immediately it's done, drain. That should be what they call al dente. That. It isn't mushy and you can still feel a little texture on your teeth. And then on the box- [pot banging] [cough] on the box it says rinse thoroughly in cold water. [water running] Which I'm going to do because I'm not- I'm not an Italian-type cook so I'll do exactly what they say. Very often I don't do anything they say on the box, but in this case they're probably right. And then let it drain off [water draining] and if you don't have a little bit ahead it's a good idea to arrange it like this. That looks like a spaghetti laundry doesn't it. And be sure when you buy any pasta or lasagna or anything look carefully on the box and it should say number 1

semolina durum wheat. Which means it's made out of very hard wheat, the kind that the real Italians make their spaghetti out of because it won't be sticky if- if it's made out of the proper stuff. And now for our lasagna, I think one of the great- Well this is one of the great dishes for when you have leftovers and I think that was somewhat plan on having leftovers. I have here some chicken that was poached in white wine and I also have some spinach that's just perfectly flavored and ready to go. And- And in fact when I did the spinach I thought well I- it's always useful for something like putting under poached eggs or poached fish or something like that and I also have some mushrooms I was having sauteed mushrooms. So I made a little extra. And I have cheeses and various other things and then we have to have em inner sauce. The tomato sauce is the outer sauce and then there's an inner

unctuous sauce that is to bind all of the ingredients in the lasagna together. And to give it to- give it a lovely- a lovely taste and this is a- I'll show you what this is- this is a white sauce which means it's a- it's a milk sauce this one happens to have a little bit of- of chicken stock in it. And this is why I left these onions so that this sauce and these onions could be combined. And then you want this should- you should let it simmer with the onions for a little while. So that they will blend flavors. And I always find, although I say for a dish like that which is rather large that 3 cups is going to make sure that you have more sauce than you think you need. Then I want to put- this doesn't have any wine in and so I think a little wine is nice and I'm just going to add a little bit of vermouth

cause that also will give it a little bit of that a la francaise taste and then, have a taste of it and make sure that it is perfectly flavored. Very good. And now one thing. A capital cardinal. A special thing I forgot we have to put garlic in the tomato sauce. I have a big take about garlic. I have an enormous piece of Italian garlic. There she goes. This would have been a crucial error if I hadn't put that in. what's skin in there. And we have put salt and pepper in that. And then this you just the tomato sauce cook as long as you possibly can because the longer it cooks the better it will be and it should cook long enough that the onions practically disappear in it. And then this after this is carefully simmered and

and you feel that it's exactly right you can add some cheese to it. I'm going to move this all over here because we will can begin assembling the lasagna and I'm going to put the sauce over there and here is our lasagna plate and I think this should always be started with a little oil in the dish so that things won't stick to it. If you don't like olive oil you can use something else but olive oil is much the best. And you just have to try out various kinds and see what you like. And then. There is the lasagna. It should be laid in. It would be interesting to see if my estimate was right. And then a little bit of the sauce will go on first as a

bottom layer. What you want with the sauce is you want to be sure that you're going to have enough left for the top to be a little bit chintzy with it unless you have an enormous amount. And now I have this carefully and beautifully flavored spinach and I'm going to put half of that on. I think you see when you see this served that it's very- it's very nice because the spinach is- the colors are pretty. I haven't any idea how Italians do it. It's always fun with French people because they take over somebody else's recipe like a moussaka and they do it exactly the way they like. And now some cheese. This is a combination of a little bit of everything. I had some leftover provolone and some Swiss and I have some Parmesan. So it's a nice mixture. So that goes in and then we have this chicken

and half of that goes on. And then a little more of the sauce. The mushrooms have- the mushrooms have already gone on and mushrooms are an important part because they do have natural MSG in them. Which is interesting to know. And now there's one layer. So we put a second layer of lasagna. So I might have enough lasagna for 4 layers rather than 3. It does seem to get bigger as it cooks. But that's the way pasta is. I'm going to put on a little more sauce there. You could if you wanted put on a little bit of the tomato sauce at this point but I don't think I will. And I'm going to put

more mushroom. I mean some more of the spinach. I don't- I don't want to lose a bit of it. There. And then we have- I have some left over cottage cheese. And I'm just going to put some of that on that would take place- the place of that Italian type cheese I can't remember what the name of it is. Again. Well I

Then I'm going to put the chicken up on top of that. We've just about a little more cheese. This was very good chicken. This was chicken that was simmered in a white wine sauce with aromatic vegetables. It was very, very nice. So I'm gonna put on some more, a little more of the regular type of cheese. And I don't have an enormous amount of sauce there left but I do have a little more in my sauce pan. Matter of fact I think I'll go back and get this little more here of this sauce and save that motherlode for the top. But I think it's nice about these dishes it doesn't--I like the kind of a dish where you don't have to have exact proportions all the time and now we have- I'm going to do. I think it's safe.

Cut off a little of these overhanging edges. Then they can go on top because I have found that if you have overhanging edges that sometimes they get a little brittle in the oven. You know this is ready for the top layer. ?And?. And this also I want to put on rather carefully. But it's top down because it looks so this hanging over this like that. Curving this around a little bit back

here that has none. So I think probably the thing to do is to cut off some. And I am going to have enough. Solid. I can see that. I could have used far less but it's better to have too much than too little, I think. Now. This is time to have the top. It means you're going to have the 2 sauces on. We're going to have the the white sauce, with its wine flavor. Put on my glasses so I don't miss any--any bit of it. So you want to get either tomato sauce or white sauce on every part of it. So you can see why it is you want to end up with more white sauce than you- than you might think you needed.

And now we have our tomato sauce over here. And this doesn't want to go all over it ?has to? - to make somewhat of particularly be sure that you cover all areas. There's also going to be some cheese on, so if you do miss something that's alright. And I think about half the- half the tomato sauce. And a good heavy layer of that because that's what's going to give it its nice look to it. And I'm gonna

make things look nice and neat. That's always a good idea if you can to practice being nice and neat and this is an impeccable wash- wipe that off too. Because this will, will not look well. Now this you can get done all ahead of time and put in the refrigerator if you prefer. But in this case I'm gonna put it into a 400 degree oven in the upper third and let it cook for about half an hour or until it's nice and bubbling. Like this. And that the top is browned nicely. There you are. And it has a marvelous smell. As it certainly should with all of this- all of this in it. Now, this is all ready to serve and I do- I really think it is

to serve it as soon as possible because of the spinach and so forth. It can If you let it wait around too long or if you keep it warm, your chicken is going to overcook and the spinach is going to lose its beautiful green color. So pro- I think you just have to watch it and then be somewhat informal about how long I mean whether your guests are going to have to wait or not. But I just think it's much better to serve it as soon as you can after it's done. And I'm going to--although I'm going to serve it to these guests I'm going to want to see how it looks. I'm just going to take out a piece. I want you to see the layers of it. This looks as though it will be enough to certainly serve 8 people I should think. First one is always the hardest, isn't it? ?fillies.?

Now can you see- can you see how the layers look there? And you see you got this sauce and the mushrooms and there's the green and there are bits of chicken. If- I don't really think that you need to have- that you need to have tomato in it because you can pass some more tomato tomato sauce separately but that's entirely up to you and how you feel, and as for wine, I would suggest that you serve just nice red domestic wine, a nice simple one like one in a half gallon jug of red. Or you could serve a Beaujolais and now there's a prick. I think we can pull off I want to put this serving back so that our guests will never know you had a look. And I think that with a little more cheese and a little more tomato sauce they will never know what happened at all and I can just brown it in the oven again. And this is a good

idea also for you if you're going to serve leftovers. You can put it in a smaller dish. And So that's all for today. On the French Chef. I'm going to have to brown this cheese before I serve it. And this is Julia Child. Buon appetito! [THEME MUSIC PLAYS] This program was made possible by a grant from Polaroid Corporation. Julia Child is the author of From Julia Child's Kitchen which includes the recipes from this program.