What do I do when I get super crappy news? I turn to pasta. My ultimate comfort food. Reg needed some comfort food too so I decided to call on some of his favourite flavours of a Greek dish he used to get in Ottawa and transform it into an Italian version. I ended up misremembering the dish but coming up with a winner recipe so it is all good.
Get this. I unknowingly made this on National Lasagna Day! I had no idea. I just know that I am now “inspired” to eat everything in my pantry and that includes a box of lasagna noodles.
The Meat
You can make your life easier by using two chicken breasts from rotisserie chickens. Me? I grilled them up, lightly seasoned and finished with some fresh lemon juice. Let cool to room temperature.
The Pasta
I was making this up on the fly so I did not know at the time you will need six lasagna noodles. You always want to make more than what is required because some inevitably break. One of my favourite things to snack on as a wee one was broken lasagna noodles that my mom would feed to me. Nostalgic bliss.
Cook them one minute less than directed to by the package in very salty water and then, do the unthinkable. Rinse them in cold water. I know! I know! That is pasta heresy but I promise you when you bake pasta in the oven and don’t rinse them you will end up with a dry dish. Those noodles are greedy so rinse your pasta. Trust me. I learned this from Martha Stewart BTW.
Let your rinsed noodles dry off on clean tea towels.
The Filling
I have one cheat for this recipe. You want a small container of room temperature Philadelphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese. To a medium-sized bowl add the chicken which you will finely chop, 2 finely chopped portobello mushrooms (gills removed), 1 tbsp minced parsley, pinch of salt and pepper.
Mix in the cream cheese and then layer each lasagna sheet with the filling.
Roll and put in a medium-sized buttered casserole dish.
The Sauce
In a small to medium sauce pan melt 2 tbsp of butter. Add 1 minced shallot and cook for a couple of minutes followed by 1 minced garlic clove.
After about 30 seconds add 2 tbsp of flour. Whisk and cook for 2 minutes. Do not let brown.
Whisk in 2 tbsp of white wine. This will start to thicken into a sauce.
Add 1 tsp of Dijon mustard and then slowly whisk in 1 1/2 cup 2% milk. Do this in batches to keep the sauce thickening.
Add 1 cup of old cheddar, 1 tbsp of chopped chives and 1 tsp of chopped parsley. Whisk together.
Bringing It Together
Pour over noodles. I used a long spatula to lift each rollup to let the sauce underneath but you can pour a little of the sauce and then add the rollups if you prefer.
Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of old cheddar and some freshly grated Parmesan.
Cover with parchment and then aluminum foil. Put in a preheated 350F oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and parchment then bake for another 10 minutes.
Foodie Results
When you take it out of the oven the sauce should be bubbling gently.
This was my little serving that went great with a spinach salad. Make sure to add some of that additional white wine shallot sauce.
LOL, this was Reg’s! Last night as we had dinner he said, “I keep trying to eat slowly to make it last but it tastes so good…”
I do not usually rave about my own recipes but DAMN!!! Honestly, this was enjoyed with foodie glee. A bit of a tedious pain the butt and time consuming to make but I have a lot of worries on my mind. This helped me escape from reality for a little while.
A foodie homerun! Yay me.
CanNOT wait to try this when I get back from Hong Kong! My stomach was growling just reading the how-to! So many of my favourite ingredients. Just a curious question – why do the gills of the portabello mushroom need to be removed?
You are going to LOVE it Vicky!!! You need to remove the gills because they will darken the sauce and make it very murky and gross-looking, LOL, to be perfectly honest. I once ignored that advice in a recipe and man, my sauce looked funky. I normally ignore aesthetics when it comes to food but not in this case. Especially when you put in all that effort.
I see – thanks for the explanation! Totally makes sense. And I never knew that about rinsing the noodles if you’re going to bake them after. Thank you!
You are welcome Vicky! I got a bit of tsk-tsking on Facebook for the rinsing noodles tip because usually it is a no-no but yes, if you are going to bake the pasta and you want some serious sauce, rinse!!!
This looks amazing!! Thanks for asking about the gills Vicky! I didn’t know either. I’ve never removed them for any recipe! I’ll have to wait for the heat wave here to calm down before firing up the oven, but this is going on my to do list!
Good to know that this is a bit of a mystery to foodies, thanks Tammy! I will mention it from now on. Yes, I made this before the heat wave hit us too.