Just Another Week Night Tossed Together Dinner
I planned to make lasagna for dinner last night since there was a large container of homemade sauce with Italian sausages in the freezer that was just begging to be used. Yep, that was my plan last night and then there was a minor glitch added to my leisurely cooking plan. I was going to prepare the casserole after dropping off or before picking up Louisa and her friend from soccer practice (depending on how our carpool worked out). But then the coach asked parents to hang around because it just might thunderstorm. My leisurely dinner preparations turned into whip it up super-speed dinner because I wanted to be sure I could pop it into the oven before I left for the drop off, since my wait time there would be uncertain, until my partner in carpooling took over. See the cooking contortions we soccer moms have to go through on practice nights?
The lengthiest part of my preparations was getting the sauce and sausage to defrost in the microwave. If only I had remembered two days earlier, as I had planned, to put them in the refrigerator to defrost. Note to self: poor planning leads to extra furious kitchen activity. Sauce in microwave, time, stir, repeat, and repeat, and repeat until finally I could slice the sausage and press the ice crystals out of the sauce. In the meantime, I mixed up the ricotta filling, tore up the fresh basil, and had everything ready to layer in the pan. I used the no-boil noodles so I was spared the step of boiling and draining that would have required more time and pots.
Luckily I had enough of a plan for the rest of preparations, knowing exactly how it would come together. I finished just at the wire, when Louisa was impatiently tapping her foot in the kitchen, reminding me it was time to pick up her friend. Crisis averted and pizza avoided once again.
In Less than an Hour
I thought that there would be trouble getting my planned dinner on the table last night. The girls are home this week on spring break, so I took them out shopping for spring clothes all afternoon, and we stayed out much longer than expected, not arriving home until 5:30. On Wednesday evenings Louisa takes a voice class and needs to leave by 7:15. I knew things would be tight. The recipe for this tart involves making the crust from scratch, blind baking it (that is baking the crust before pouring in the filling), and pre-cooking the asparagus. Could I do it and have it out of the oven in time to eat without indigestion? It turns out that I could.
Of course, I can already hear some of you talking to the computer saying “why would you make a tart for dinner on a weeknight anyway? Why not save that for the weekend when there’s more time? Why make something like this at all????” To answer your questions and respond to your cynicism, the reason I chose this was because I saw a cooking program over the weekend that showed the preparation of an asparagus tart, so the seed was planted. Plus, it came from a cookbook that I’m in the process of reviewing. How convenient, no?
I took a few shortcuts with my timing, but there wasn’t any harm in what I did. Instead of putting the dough into the refrigerator for an hour before blind baking it, I put it into the freezer for 15 minutes while I prepared some of the other ingredients, like grating the smoked gouda cheese. While the crust baked I prepared the asparagus and mixed up the rest of the filling. Finally, by baking it on the floor of my hottest Aga oven, I was able to shave off 10 minutes from the tart baking time.
Whew! We were able to spend 25 minutes eating at the table in a civil manner, with time left for second helpings for whomever wanted it. Do I recommend pulling off this kind of focused cooking every night? No, but it beat calling for a pizza – just ask Joe who was looking for leftovers today.
Quote of the Week – April 27, 2011 – Benjamin Franklin
“An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow.”
- Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richard’s Almanac”