The 100-Layer Lasagne
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
When people ask me for advice on cooking (this rarely happens except in my imagination), I usually begin my response by saying, “Don’t ever make lasagne. You know the Spanish Steps in Rome? Well, lasagne has more steps than that.” So I was immediately attracted to an article my friend Suzanne sent me about a restaurant that serves lasagne with 100 layers. I have to recline in the Baracalounger just thinking about this.
Mark Ladner is the chef at Del Posto restaurant in New York, where he says it takes three “departments” to create the lasagne (which sells for $30 a serving). One group makes the three sauces (yep, three, trois, a full trio) that go into the dish, one makes the giant sheets of pasta (I have no idea how this happens so don’t ask me) and one assembles it all in a giant baking pan. So, Ladner does have help. No wonder I find lasagne challenging. The only extra “department” besides myself I ever had in my kitchen was the fire department, that time I forgot I was broiling garlic bread.
