1 chicken bouillon cube, or enough chicken broth to make up the polenta following the instructions o
1 onion, peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled
1 celery stalk
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon soft butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt, or to taste
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound ground beef, preferably organic
3 aluminum foil trays or ovenproof dishes/roasting pans approximately 13 x 9 x 2 inches
Instructions
Put the porcini mushrooms, marsala, and water into
a small saucepan and bring to a boil, then take
off the heat and scissor the softened mushrooms
into smaller pieces.
Warm the oil in a heavy-based saucepan with a lid,
and finely chop the onion, carrot, and celery
either by hand or in a processor and scrape them
into the pan.
Let the vegetables soften over a gentle heat for
about 5 minutes or so, then stir in the thyme and
salt.
Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a fork,
and let it brown a little. Then stir in the tomato
paste, canned tomatoes, and bay leaf.
Add the porcini mushrooms with their dark,
gorgeously flavored liquid and bring the contents
of the pan to a boil. Once the sauce is bubbling,
put the lid on, turn the heat down to very low,
and leave to simmer gently for about 45 minutes to
1 hour. If you're using a wide pan, the shorter
time should be enough; if the sauce is piled up
higher, you'll probably need the full hour.
While the sauce is simmering, make the polenta
layers. First dampen your chosen pans by letting
some water from the cold tap splash them a bit.
Make up the polenta in a saucepan following the
package instructions, but first dissolve a chicken
bouillon cube in the specified amount of water, or
use chicken broth instead of water.
Stir as instructed with your wooden spoon, and
when the polenta has thickened, add, beating as
you go, the tablespoon of butter and 1 cup of
Parmesan. Taste to see if you want any more
seasoning. Once the polenta is thick and coming
away from the sides of the saucepan, quickly
divide it between the damp pans, spreading each
one to an even as possible layer using a silicone
spatula you've passed under a cold tap. It will
set almost instantly. You can put aside these
polenta layers and your meat sauce for now.
When you are ready to assemble the lasagne,
preheat the oven to 400°F. Using 1 polenta-lined
pan as your dish, spoon half of the meat sauce
over the polenta.
Deftly tip out (it's not hard) one of the other
polenta layers and place this over the meat sauce
in the pan you're working on and then add the last
half of meat sauce.
Top with the final layer of polenta from the third
pan, then sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of Parmesan
cheese over the top.
Bake for 1 hour if your meat sauce was cold, and
about 45 minutes if it was still warm. The cheese
should have melted and become slightly golden, and
the lasagne must be piping hot right through.
Originally Submitted
11/2/2010
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