Bread Lasagna
Several years ago, in my quest to spread the word about our product, I ordered several types of bread from the famous Poilane bakery in Paris for a photo shoot.
It was air freighted in short order. My partner ordered the book "Poilane" written by Apollania Poilane, the third generation of her family to run that business. We selected several recipes to photograph and post to our blog.
I decided to send her a Nicer Slicer and asked her to evaluate its use with her breads. It turned out that her father used a technique for toasting bread that resulted in the same effect as the Nicer Slicer - crunchy on one side and soft as if just baked on the other. Apollonia was very quickly interested in our efforts and understood the use and potential of the Nicer Slicer as soon as she saw it. Apollonia has graciously agreed to share a few thoughts about how we can use the Nicer Slicer to expand our cuisine. So from time to time, you will see a post from Apollonia like the one below.
Use Bread instead of Pasta for Lasagna and Ravioli
Despite them both being carbs, I am one of these people who will have a slice of bread and butter to finish my dish.
While researching the different uses of world breads and testing the most common uses of various types of breads, I found that lavash bread, soaked, tends to feel like a sheet of lasagna pasta. However, what I find flat breads lack in this instance, is the airiness of leavened breads. That lightness gives volume. The texture allows for the bread to soak up more juices from the dish it supports. Try it!
However, to layer bread instead of pasta or a flat bread in a lasagna, you will need a thin slice to match coherently the thickness of the time-proven recipes. I would choose a white or lighter color grain flour bread, and definitely a plain loaf. I would use a typical square sliced tin loaf and halve it with the Nicer Slicer. Removing the crusts of the slices, I would position them in the dish replacing the habitual lasagna pasta. You may find that the bread will remove the hard pasta bits that overcook. But that is a personal preference.
While we are at substituting bread for pasta, why not try a bread-ravioli using a grilled cheese maker.
Some machines come with the possibility of making triangular sandwiches. But using the machine to seal your stuffing with two thin slices of bread makes for a bread slice pocket.
Using the same types of bread as for the lasagna, you can cut out the final size of the ravioli from a larger slice of bread. And then, divide it in two with the Nicer Slicer. Use preferably denser breads as the slices are porous and might let some stuffing escape its fermentation holes.
Using the Nicer Slicer, you can halve a standard slice size of bread in two to lodge a stuffing of your choice. You could even halve a slice partially to have one less side to seal. Or better yet, use the Nicer Slicer to hold your piece of bread to hollow evenly a space from only once side.
I would take advantage of the bread slice sizes to try different sizes, without going so small you would wound up with more bread than stuffing!
Obviously, you cannot cook the bread ravioli in hot water: you will need to adapt the stuffing.
I would use bread instead of ravioli dough to experiment with stuffings that could be cold or hot but not too juicy, and where you might appreciate a little crunch around the edges. This could be fresh goats’ cheese and chives, a vegetable spread or some leftover cooked meats with vegetable pieces.
Positioning the stuffing in the center of the two slices of bread, and using a grilled cheese maker, seal the sides to close your ravioli. Trust the glutens of fresh to fresh-ish breads to act like glue to hold it together!
You may be tempted at this point to serve the ravioli with a sauce. While it will be a perfect finish to your dish, remember to choose a sauce that is on the thicker and dryer side to not soak these ravioli unless you so desire.
Ingredients:
1) Zucchini
2) 3 slices sourdough bread
3) 8 sun-dried tomatoes
4) Tomato paste
5) Marinara sauce
6) spinach
7) mozzarella cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
a) Dry oil off sun-dried tomatoes, then rinse and dry them off again
b) Thinly slice zucchini
c) Toast, cut crust off with sharp scissors, run though slicer, then cut each half into 2 pieces which makes 6 thins and cut each thin in half so you end up with 12 half thins. That will make 4 separate lasagnas.
d) Assemble lasagna with mozzarella cheese on each level, some tomato paste on each level
e) Three zones between bread one sun-dried tomato, then next zucchini, then the last gets spinach. Make sure to leave some space between each for easy removal to plate them after cooking.
f) Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it as you want cheese to melt
g) Heat a small amount of marinara in pan on stove top
h) Remove from baking dish, plate and add marinara
This was excellent...crunchy like a cross between a sandwich and lasagna. The photos we took did not include the tomato paste and it is a key ingredient. It is also key to use a little cheese on every layer to help bind together.
This is what the sequence of making bread lasagna looks like as you layer it up.
Don’t forget these photos do not include the key ingredient- tomato paste!!!