Celiac Awareness Day meal...LASAGNA!!!

Today, September 13, 2010 was National Celiac Awareness day. A day we should be educating our neighbors, coworkers, friends and family that suffer from like symptoms of celiac disease. Now don't go diagnosing them and making this a big theatrical scare. Just educate them and encourage them to go get tested. It is a very serious disease that shouldn't be taken lightly.

My girlfriend Megan was diagnosed with celiac in 2003. Since then she has been an advocate to living a gluten free lifestyle. I myself am allergic to gluten and have been gluten free for 2 years.

Since I do majority of the cooking in the house, I always make sure I create something that she wouldn't think was possible to be made gluten free. It's funny how I never cease to amaze her. One of her favorite dishes that I make is gluten free lasagna.

As a kid I hated to eat lasagna. The worst was the Parmesan cheese that didn't melt so you had this crumbled cheese inside this moist noodle with plain tomato sauce.  I can't recall a good experience from childhood to adulthood  pertaining to lasagna. So I avoided it and never even had a thought of making my own until I met Megan. She told me one day that I should make lasagna. (mostly because she was craving it) So in my first attempt I made this mediocre version that she loved.

Megan is not easily impressed so I now had confidence in being able to create this wonderful lasagna that was gluten free and dairy free. Her birthday came and I made lasagna except this time I added some more creativity. Another success!!

Today I have challenged myself to create a lasagna that everyone would enjoy! Sometimes I can be lazy and get a jar of gluten free sauce and boil some water throw some noodles in and presto gluten free lasagna. Where is the fun in that? I wanted to make this meal spectacular!


I start off by making the meat for the sauce. I am using ground turkey meat to make a version of Italian sausage. You can use ground beef or pork I prefer a poultry because of how lean the meat is. I browned the meat using a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) add some spices (garlic, paprika, basil, oregano, thyme) After the meat starts to brown I pour about 1/4 cup or Petite Sirah and stir a bit.

While the meat finishes to brown I need to start on the sauce. To me it is the most important part to this dish especially since we aren't using any dairy. Start by pouring 2 tbsp of EVOO into a pan, add about 1/2 cup chopped yellow onions and green bell pepper. After the peppers start to soften and the onions become more of a translucent color add 8 oz of sliced mushrooms, 8 oz of rough chopped black olives, 2 tomatoes diced and 1/8 cup of chopped green onions or scallions.

Once all the ingredients are mixed let them cook for about 5-7 minutes on lo-med heat. While that is cooking start to boil 6 cups of water in a pot.





The lasagna noodles I use are Tinkyada brown rice noodles. In my  experience of cooking I have yet to come across of brand of noodles like Tinkyada.In my opinion there isn't a better brand of gluten free pasta noodles out there. The best part of Tinkyada is that I never feel limited to a type of noodle. They make almost every style of noodle I would want to use for my pasta.


So I look at my stove and I feel overwhelmed with all the pots and pans all cooking at once, now it's time to combine them . The turkey meat is already seasoned, the vegetables already produce a natural salt flavor so when adding the sauce just season with garlic for taste. I used one 16 oz can of organic tomato puree and one 12 oz can of organic tomato sauce.

Why this mixture? Puree doesn't have any additives to it and provides a nice texture. The tomato sauce that I used has no additives to it other than water. I used the tomato sauce to substitute the process of adding just water. This way you are still getting the ingredient that will thin out your sauce without losing any flavor.

Combine the meat, vegetables and sauce into one pot and let simmer until the noodles are fully cooked. While waiting the 8-10 minutes the noodles need to cook in boiling water, pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees, and get an oven safe baking dish out. I used two 8" x 4" x 2" oval dishes to make the serving size easier to measure. Once the noodles are done cooking drain and set aside on cutting board. Most noodles, if not broken :-), are 12" in legnth so be prepared to custom fit your noodles to fit the dish of your choice. Just follow the steps on how to prepare the dish to bake

Steps:

1. Put a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of dish
2. lay a layer of noodles on top then add sauce on top of noodles
3. repeat step 2 twice

Bake in the oven for ten minutes and let cool for five minutes before serving. I personally like to serve red wine with lasagna. We picked up this great 2006 Cabernet from a Napa Valley winery called Sequoia Grove. It's a nice smooth cab that goes well with lasagna. I suggest you go with something you are familiar with if you are not knowledgeable about wines.

This is a great meal to share with anyone. You can serve this at a dinner party or if you are trying to impress a special someone. I would definitely recommend this dish if you are entertaining mixed company (non gluten free).