guys i fear i did my big one.

so obviously i was inspired by tutu’s NEW summer lasagna because if you don’t know… I LOVE CORN and asparagus, and most importantly i love lasagna. so could it get more perfect?

this beautiful dish was the lasagna from my holy ground, tutu’s. amy if you’re reading this and this is how you find out i went to tutu’s without you to try the lasagna i’m sorry but this is payback for the miso salmon i guess. the ONLY thing that would make this dish better is the chili paste that goes on the creamy pesto penne (which i added and the server.. obviously a new guy didn’t even know that they had it but i KNOW the tutu’s menu) and either some grilled chicken OR a nice crispy and thin chicken cutlet. also we learned to never get the spicy thai chili noodles which i kinda feel like was a given but nonetheless, it was in fact NOT spicy, and lacked flavor all around. our server teased us with that one but we all live and learn. next visit i wanna try the sicilian arancini because the one from bull valley roadhouse is GAAAAAAAAAAAAS and the spinach ravioli because that’s a whole new menu item altogether. also, the brown derby (bourbon, grapefruit, lemon, honey) did not make a comeback this summer but the gold rush is essentially the same minus the grapefruit… so a whiskey sour with honey not sugar?? either way it was really damn good,

anyways.. after the lasagna i was sent into a pesto frenzy so amy and i made corn and buratta ravioli with a corn and pesto sauce and it still just wasn’t enough pesto in my life. so one day on my lunch i stumbled across threeolivesbranch.com recipe and it was like god himself reached down to hand it to me.

what else is more perfect than getting off of work early as hell, hanging out with your friends that you haven’t seen in a year, martinis, and farmer’s market on a thursday? HAVING LASAGNA AND YOUR FRIENDS BE YOUR SOUS CHEFS!!! heavy on the sous chef part because three girls vs. one lasagna made the whole thing abreeze. and let me just tell you a girl was stressing at first because it was my olivia, d’enjoli, and i’s first lasagna ever. but i channeled my inner charlene mausi and it was 10/10 amazing.

most importantly… the wine pairing. obviously because it’s a summer pasta i wanted to go with a lighter wine which makes me sad because that means we are offically moving out of red wine season. also a red wine with pesto feels a little criminal. per usual trader joe’s AAAALLWAAYYSS comes in clutch with great house reserves. since around the end of last summer i’ve taken i big break from chardonnays because i don’t love oaked chards but the 2022 trader joe’s chardonnay is so refreshing. it was super fruity but nothing that stood out too much, just an all around simple, buttery wine but not in an oaky kinda way. not only is this bad boy less that $15 what makes this one better too is it’s from a local fav, carneros. thank god we basically live in wine country because our wine selection is truly a blessing and we take it for granted everyday.

here’s what we did:

bechamel pesto sauce:

2 tbsp, butter

2 tbsp. flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 1/2 cups pesto (i used the superfood brand one from raley’s)

2 diced tomatoes, lots of corn, and asaragus

melt the butter over medium-low heat and combine flour. stir for like a minute before adding your salt and pepper and stirring in your milk. i did like 1/4 cup at at time to make sure everything was smooth before adding in the pesto.

roast the veggies until they have a little bit of brown/crispiness to them before mixing them into the sauce. even if you think you’re doing a lot, you could do more.

cheese mix:

15 oz ricotta

1/3 cup (probably even more) grated parmesan

1 egg

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

you also need:

oven ready lasagna noodles

3-4 cups grated mozzerella

more parmesan to top

a baguette (duuuhhh)

garlic

more butter

how to assemble/bake:

i chose a smaller, deeper pan because i prefer to have more layers but it might be easier to use a longer one because it was kinda annoying to break the noodles to size so pick your battles i guess?

make a light bed of the pesto coating the bottom of the pan and then go in with your noodles. between each layer it goes :

generous layer of cheese mix, don’t be shy more is better

pesto sauce

mozzerella fully covering the sauce

noodle

preheat the oven to 375 and let her bake for 50 minutes before broiling on high for 10 minutes

while you wait, crush some garlic and melt a bit of butter in a sauce pan and add the garlic (rocket science) and when you can really smell it… add more butter cause youre gonna need to coat your bagette slices before you throw those bad boys in the oven at 350 until they’re crispy. i think imay had added some rosemary and thyme in there too but this was last week so your guess is as good as mine.

in the end, i wish that i added more cheese so my layers could be more even, added more veggies, and next time around i wanna try and make my own lasagna noodles and pesto from scratch. this is a meal that i was 10/10 proud of and even 2 days later jorgie rated it a 10/10 so i can’t complain. i’m still riding on the high.

special thanks to my old office aide friends d’enjoli and olivia for being 10/10 sous chefs and just going along with everything i said ❤

xoxo, tata