Pasta Roses: Ham & Fontina and Zucchini, Mozzarella & Basil with a Spicy Pink Sauce

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2013

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Well now – here is an embarrassing blog post: I am posting two recipes here WITHOUT any photographs of the final results. (Update! I made these a second time in 24 hours & have result photos to share. They will follow at the end of the original post.) This happened because I had a dinner party yesterday & by the time these guys came out of the oven – I was more interested in serving them & eating them that I was in photographing them. Let me assure you – there were no visual surprises when they came out of the oven so do not be afraid to try these. They are easy & delicious!!!! They are an interesting alternative to tradition lasagna. My sauce was made with the produce I had handy – which included a leek & both a red & yellow pepper. You need not use two colors of pepper nor a leek. Onions alone would do as would just a single red bell pepper. I am going to list quantities here but they are really approximates. When making dishes like this that require layers of assembly, I always err on the side of making or buying more of each ingredient than the recipe calls for. That way, you do not run out of sauce or cheese or whatever midway through putting it all together. This made about a dozen of each of the two rose varieties. And – as a brilliant coincidence – I served my guests pasta roses & after they left – my awesome stud of a boyfriend, Miles, presented me with these roses! At like – 11pm. It was a total surprise. Isn’t he great?

Pasta Roses: Ham & Fontina and Zucchini, Mozzarella & Basil with a Spicy Pink Sauce

INGREDIENTS

Approximately 1.5 lbs lasagna noodles (I cooked two boxes but threw a lot away)

For the sauce

1/2 onion – diced

1 bell pepper – diced

1 leek – diced

6 garlic cloves – minced

1-2 TBS olive oil

2 (29 oz) cans of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 TBS crushed red pepper

2 TBS fresh basil – chopped

1 cup heavy cream

S&P to taste

For the ham & fontina roses

Approximately 1/2 lb sliced ham

1/2 lb sliced fontina

For the zucchini, mozzarella & basil roses

1-2 large zucchini – sliced into rounds

12-16 oz fresh mozzarella – sliced

1 large bunch basil

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the lasagna noodles. About 2-3 minutes before they are done – add the zucchini rounds to the water. I cooked mine for 5 minutes – which was too long. Then – rinse the noodles & zucchini under cold water. Then set the zucchini aside & lay the noodles out to dry.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a stock pot & saute the onion, bell pepper, leek (or additional onion) & crushed red pepper for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic & basil & stir for another minute or so. Add the canned tomato sauce & simmer on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream. I used an immersion blender here & pureed the sauce into a smooth & creamy texture. You can do this in a blender or skip this step & leave the sauce with the vegetable texture. Set aside.

To assemble the roses, layer a casserole pan with the sauce. I needed two casserole pans to fit all my roses. Roll the ham & fontina in some of your lasagna noodles. No need to roll them tightly. A nice loose roll is good. Stand the roses up in the pan.

I cut the ribbon edge off one side of the lasagna noodles on the ham rolls so I could identify which roses had meat in them & which did not.

Roll up some zucchini, mozzarella & basil in the other lasagna noodles.

I had a little extra zucchini & mozzarella left over so I just stuck in in where I could fit it – once my casserole dishes were filled to capacity with roses.

I then slathered lots of sauce on top of both casseroles. You might want to go lighter than I did & leave the edges of the lasagna noodles uncovered. That way they will brown & curl a bit & create the rose effect you want.

Bake for 20-30 minutes – or until the top of the noodles are golden. Again – apologies for the lack of final result images!!! Serve with additional sauce if you have more left over.

UPDATE at 3:00pm!

I made these again so I could show you results. This time – I used oven-ready lasagna noodles soaked in warm water until they were pliable. I cut them in half to make smaller roses.

I made the ham & fontina again and the zucchini, mozzarella & basil again. I added some amazing garlic sauce that I bought at Super King to the veggie ones but I might not in the future. It made them too wet & sort of limp in the end.

Here is the assembly of the two versions.

I’ve read that slicing an X into the tops of the roses will allow the lasagna noodle to curl outward as they cook – creating a better blooming effect for your roses. I neglected to do this. Just cut about a 1/2 inch down into the tops & you should get a good curl.

I baked them in about 1/4-1/2 inch of the spicy pink sauce at 350 for about 20 minutes. I then took them from the oven & added a tad more sauce & some grated Parmesan to the roses.