from the Latin 'lasanum'

I have begun a lasagna project.

pictured here are excerpts from lasagna project #1, a version based on this vegetarian recipe. yep, I did make the pasta from scratch that time. there was barely enough of it, but it worked and it was gorgeous.

I'd thought about learning to make lasagna before, but it always seemed like such a time-consuming recipe with so many fiddly, very precise parts to it. just a few months ago, at dinner with friend Maddy and her family, I had a lovely lasagna with mustard sauce, which reminded me that there are so impressively many different kinds of lasagna in the world.

how can so classic a recipe also be so versatile?

the only other project like this that I've ever laid out for myself was the Shakespeare project of 2010, and actually it just sort of started happening. this lasagna project has been a bit more pre-meditated. learning how to make lasagna is hardly going to revolutionize my life, but it's still a thing I'd never done before. doing those kinds of things generally comes with a sense of awesomeness.

so I thought it would be fun to make as many kinds of lasagna over the next however-many months as I could manage. so I've been collecting lasagna recipes and lasagna ingredients. there have been three attempts over the past month or so: the first, a homemade-noodle-veggie version, and then a fairly boring store-bought-noodle-and-farmers'-market-tomato version, and most recently a zucchini-noodle-and-mushroom version.

I think this one, the first, had the best noodles.

there will be more lasagna-making to come, I hope. I have meat-filled versions, alfredo versions, cajun versions, chicken bacon versions... and once I get bored of all that normal lasagna, I will round out the project with this version.

and maybe once I've mastered lasagna, I'll set myself some other culinary project. sushi is on the list. and pita bread. and breads in general. or maybe ice creams. or fruit pies.