Roasted Red Pepper, Prosciutto, and Arugula Lasagna

You guys, I bought linen napkins! Like an adult! Okay, that doesn’t make me any more adult-like, but we can pretend. Just like dress up. You can’t tell me that didn’t make you feel more like an adult.

I picked them up from Beam & Anchor, which might be the coolest shop I’ve been to in a long time. I’m not doing it justice by calling it a “home goods” shop, but that’s the easiest thing I can think of. They focus on local suppliers and creators with a heavy emphasis on design. You’ll find things like dishes, custom furniture, belts, soaps, jewelry, suitcases, and plants. The space is just as cool as what they keep in it. It was so fun wandering around, making a mental wish list. The napkins were one of the first things I saw. The brand is npg [non-perishable goods] handmade by a woman here in Portland. They come in a bunch of stunning colors, but I was sold on the fog with a grey trim. I kept coming back to them when I made my laps around all of the intricate items, so it kind of made sense to take them home.

The napkins inspired this lasagna. Sort of. I had these grand plans to make lasagna. I wanted it to go with a bottle of wine we imported from Celli Winery in Bertinoro that we ordered when we were there. It seemed only fitting after all [I really have no qualms drinking wine with anything…or nothing. You get the idea]. Plus we had new napkins. We couldn’t just let them sit in the drawer.

Ever since the chicken, artichoke, and kale lasagna, I kind of have a thing for greens nestled in between the layers of pasta. It’s kind of like the green smoothies everyone [myself included] drinks these days. It’s easy to throw the greens in so long as you squeeze out all of the moisture in your greens really, really well. Otherwise you sometimes end up with lasagna soup. It’s not really a bad thing, but it puts a little bit of a damper on the whole “presentation” thing if you’re into that. Mine was only a minor soup in the middle pieces, which is why you only get to see an end. Priorities.

The flavor combination came from La Cucina Italia, which has yet to lead me astray. They took the red pepper sauce and tossed it with the spaghetti, prosciutto, and arugula. I decided layering it would be way cooler in between sheets of pasta and chunks of mozzarella. The sauce comes together really easy. We had some leftover to dunk a bunch of baguette in. Hello, multi-purpose. The prosciutto is the tricky part. The guy in the deli department at the store fridge sliced it up thicker than I’m used to. I’ve never had to specify before, it would just come out almost transparent. Needless to say I was a little shocked when I asked for 10 slices, and it came out to a half pound. Instead of requesting a new batch, I smiled and went on my merry way. Who wouldn’t eat extra prosciutto in this house?

The problem is that when you bake prosciutto, it becomes so, so salty. Had I searched this before I threw nearly that whole half pound on it, I would have saved myself the occasional salty bite of lasagna. But I didn’t. So yeah, learn from my [many] mistakes, unless you like a lot of salt in your food. In that case, it’ll save you a lot of time. Next time, I would use way less prosciutto, which is what I listed below, and then chop it up and not layer full sheets onto each piece of pasta. You could always use a different protein or drop in another vegetable or two. That works, as well. The sauce really is a nice change from traditional tomato sauce, and arugula adds a totally different flavor [spicier!] than spinach or kale. It’s nice.

Ingredients

• 8 no-boil lasagna noodles
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1lb red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 4 thin slices of prosciutto
• 1 bunch, fresh baby arugula, rinsed, drained well, and chopped
• 8oz fresh mozzarella balls [I used two large ones cut into slices]
• oregano
• salt
• pepper

Preparation

Heat the olive oil on medium high heat in a large pan with high enough walls that it will accommodate the liquid. Add the onion and red peppers, and saute until the onion starts to turn translucent, about five minutes. Add the water, tomatoes, sugar, and a pinch or two of salt. Give everything a good stir, and taste it before you bring it to a boil.

Allow the sauce to simmer, tasting it occasionally to see if it needs more salt. I added a teaspoon of oregano at one point to give it some more depth. After ten minutes,  remove from heat, and puree the sauce in a blender or food processor.

Preheat the oven to 375° and get out a 9×6″ loaf pan. Create a station so you can prepare the lasagna. Start with a thin layer of sauce, followed by two sheets of noodles arranged in the bottom. It won’t be a perfect fit, but you won’t notice once it bakes together. Top with prosciutto, cheese, and arugula. Make sure to use as even amounts as possible. Continue layering everything until all the pasta sheets are used.

Sprinkle the top layer with some more oregano and fresh cracked pepper. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving so it has some time to stop pretending to be a soup.