Cook's Country

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- I think I'm home I think I'm home How nice to look at you again Along the road Along the road Anytime you want me You can find me living right between your eyes, yeah Oh, I think I'm home Oh, I think I'm home -Today on "Cook's Country," Christie makes Julia the perfect hearty beef lasagna, Jack challenges Bridget to a tasting of mozzarella, and Lan makes Bridget a new weeknight favorite, chicken scarpariello. That's all right here on "Cook's Country." -The introduction of lasagna into the American culture dates all the way back to the spaghetti houses of the 1800s. -These humble bohemian restaurants were found on the side streets of big cities. They served inexpensive meals to young couples and starving artists. -Now, you could get a decent meal for 30 cents, and that included soup, fish, pasta, a roast, plus a cup of coffee. -Now, lasagna started appearing on these menu in the 1920s, but it wasn't until after World War II that Italian food, and Frank Sinatra, became popular all over the country, making lasagna a household name. -These days, Ol' Blue Eyes would never recognize some of the more adventurous lasagna recipes. Buffalo-chicken lasagna, anyone? -

Chuckles

Not today, thank goodness. Today, we're celebrating that hearty, beefy lasagna that made it an American classic in the first place. A traditional meaty lasagna, also known as a lasagna Bolognese, can be a serious undertaking, complete with homemade noodles and not one but two sauces -- a creamy Bchamel and a long-simmered Bolognese. And it is the ultimate lasagna. It's delicious. But it takes all day. So the question for Christie is, can you keep the flavor but speed it up a bit? -Yes, you can. -Yay! -It doesn't usually happen, but we're gonna do it today. -All right. -So, we're gonna start with our noodles. -Okay. -I have about 4 quarters of water here that I brought to a boil. I'm gonna add a tablespoon of salt. And now I'm going to add my noodles. -When you think about saving time, you think about using no-boil noodles. Those are not no-boil noodles. -They are not. These are traditional curly lasagna noodles. -So you're actually adding a little extra time to this lasagna. -We are, but we're saving so much time everywhere else, so we thought it was worth it to spend the time to get that extra-sturdy chew and texture of traditional noodles. We'll let the noodles cook for about six to eight minutes until they're nice and al dente. -Okay. -Now, let's get started on our meat sauce. -Mmm. Star ingredient. -Yes. What we found with a lot of meat sauces is that, as they cook, the meat gets kinda dry and kinda pebbly. So our solution was to start with a panade, like we do with meatloaf or meatballs. So, I have two slices of hearty white sandwich bread that I've torn up into little pieces, and I'm gonna add 1/4 cup of milk. I'm just gonna mash this until I get nice paste. -All right. -So, we have our panade. -Good looking panade. -Why, thank you. I pride myself on my panade.

Laughter

So, I'm gonna add this to my meat. Now, this is a meaty sauce. It's 1 1/2 pounds of 90%-lean ground beef. -Usually we go for fattier cuts, seeing they have more flavor. Why 90% here? -Because we want to be able to control the fat in here. -Ah. -It's gonna bake in that casserole dish, and there's nowhere for it to go. By using the leaner grind, we could keep that greasiness in check. -Makes sense. -I'm gonna add a little salt and pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. -Time to get started? -Now I'm going in. I'm going in. -Take off the jewelry, time to go in! -You can try to do this with a spatula, but... -It's just kinda therapeutic to get your hands in there and squish the meat around. -

Chuckles

Yes. I am going to wash my meat hands, and then we'll come back and we'll check on the noodles. -All right. -So, Julia, I just checked my noodles. -Mm-hmm. -They're ready to go. -So now, I've already sprayed this rimmed baking sheet with a little vegetable oil spread... -Mm-hmm. -...because we don't want them sticking together. So I'm just gonna toss them gently, let these cool, and start working on the sauce. -Using the same pot. -Yeah. -I like it. -See? Easy and quick. I'm going to start the sauce with some extra virgin olive oil. I have 1 tablespoon. I'm gonna heat this over medium heat, just until it shimmers. -Which shouldn't take too long, 'cause that pot's pretty hot. -It is quite the hot pot. So, we want this lasagna to be very meat forward, but we will add some onion. This is 1 onion, chopped fine. We're just gonna cook these until they've softened. We don't really need to go all the way to full browning, so that's just gonna take about five minutes. We have soft onions here, Julia. -Mmm. They smell good. -You know what's gonna make it smell better? -What's that? -Garlic. -Ah. You're right. -I've got 6 cloves that I've minced and a teaspoon of dried oregano and 1/4 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes. As soon as we can start to smell it, about 30 seconds -- Can you smell that oregano? -Oh, yeah. It smells delicious. -So now it is time to add our beef mixture. Now, we're not gonna cook this for very long. I'm just gonna break it up, because we just want this to cook until it's no longer pink. So, I'm just gonna cook this for about four minutes. Do you see any pink meat in there? -I see no pink. -There is no pink. Now we'll add the last element, which is a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes. -That's also not a lot of tomatoes, so this isn't really a big tomatoey lasagna. It's really all about the meat. -It is about the meat. So, I'm just gonna make sure that I scrape up any good brown bits that got stuck to the pan while the meat was cooking. Now I just want to bring this to a simmer, and then I'll reduce the heat to medium-low and let it cook for five minutes, just long enough to let the flavors meld. Our meat sauce is done. -Oh, nice. That was fast. -Five minutes. -Love it. -So, now we're going to start on our white sauce. -That's not a Bchamel. -It's not a Bchamel, no. Again, we're trying to save a little time. And other recipes try to save time, too. Often they'll use ricotta. But ricotta tends to get kinda grainy when it gets really hot. -Yeah, it really does. -At higher temperatures. -Mm-hmm. -We found that cottage cheese works really well. It's a bigger curd, and it holds up to those high temperatures without getting grainy. -Smart. -So that's what we're starting with. I have a cup of cottage cheese in here. I'm also going to add 4 ounces of Pecorino Romano. This is actually about 2 cups, once you've grated it. And then we'll also add a cup of heavy cream, because we need it to be saucy. And add some flavors -- of course a little bit of garlic. That's two cloves that we've minced. And I'm adding a teaspoon of corn starch, and that's gonna help bind everything, and it's also gonna help thicken it a little bit. And then a little salt and pepper. I have 1/4 teaspoon each. I'm just gonna whisk this. -That was the easiest Bchamel I never made. -

Laughs

It is very easy. Okay. Now we're gonna head over to the construction zone. -

Chuckles

Right? 'Cause you have a lot of components here. Putting them together looks like it might take a little bit of time. -It's like an erector set. Now, the first step is -- we used some vegetable oil spray, sprayed the whole bottom so the noodles won't stick. I'm gonna take three noodles. Now, look. These perfectly fit. -Nicely. -Unfortunately, that's not always the case. -Yeah, that doesn't always happen at my house. -Right. And we're looking for sturdy, not shoddy construction. So if you find that the noodles don't fit all the way to the end, we took two noodles and cut them in half. -Ah, cut to fit. -Yes. -I like it. -That way, you have noodles the whole length of the dish and everything is a lot sturdier. -Okeydoke. -I'm gonna take some of my meat sauce, about 1 1/2 cups. -All right. -And we'll pour this. Oh, I'm getting so excited. -Mmm. Me too. -And then I'll take 1/2 cup of my sauce. And this I'll just kind of dollop. It's not gonna be a totally smooth coverage. -That's right, 'cause when it hits the oven, it's gonna melt and make a sauce. -And, if there wasn't enough cheese here, I'm adding 1/2 cup of the mozz. -Now, this isn't the pre-shredded stuff. This stuff looks a bit stickier, which is pretty important, to buy block mozzarella and shred it yourself. That pre-shredded stuff doesn't melt the same. -So, now we'll start the second layer. -All right. -And like I said, if it didn't fit your pan and you were using a 1/2 sheet, say at this end, on the second layer, you want to make sure you put the 1/2 sheet... -Oh, alternating the cut-to-fit so it's an even construction. -Yes. -You might've missed your calling. You should maybe wear a hard hat. -

Laughs

We're gonna finish this one and then do two more layers, so we have four layers. And then we'll talk about the topping. -All right. -We have finished four complete layers. -And that dish is full. -It is full. -Now, that's a lasagna. -It's hearty. So, now we have the last layer of noodles. And if you were using 1/2 sheets of noodles, you wouldn't add it to this top layer. -All right. -And you're also not going to add any meat sauce. -Well, that's good, 'cause there's none left. -We worked it out that way. -

Chuckles

Smart. -Because if we add the meat sauce to the top, it keeps it a little wet. And if it's wet on top, then it's not gonna brown. -Ah. -And the brown cheesy top... -Is the best part. -Exactly. Instead, we're gonna add the rest of the white sauce. So, just kinda get it spread pretty eventually. Now we have the rest of our mozzarella. -Mm-hmm. -There should be about a cup left. We'll sprinkle that over the top. Now we're gonna add a little bit more of the Pecorino, just another 1/4 cup. 'Cause this is an aged cheese, it's a little drier. -Right. So it browns better. -It's gonna brown beautifully. So, there we go. Now, notice that I have this sitting on a rimmed baking sheet. -Right. -Because this is very full. -Yes, it is. -And we don't want it to overflow. I'm also going to cover it with some foil. I did spray this with vegetable oil spray. So, we're gonna put this in a 375-degree oven, middle rack, four about an hour. I'm gonna go in halfway, take the cover off. -Oh, that's the smell, right there -- the smell of success. -Look at those spotty brown bits. -But that looks lava hot. -It is so hot. So we have to wait half an hour. That's gonna give the cheese and the sauce a chance to kinda set up so we can cut those nice squares. I think it's set now. -Awesome. Time to eat? -Yes. Absolutely. -The whole making of lasagna, the hardest part is getting the first slice out. Looking pretty. -This is like Operation now. -You're using the double-spatula technique. Look at that! -Ahh. -You nailed it. All right, I'm going in. -Okay. -Man, that's good. -The cheese sauce, it really thickened nicely... -It did. -...and it's just kinda gooey. -Yeah. And it didn't break. It doesn't have any of that graininess you get with ricotta. -No. It's very creamy. -And very beefy. Finally, a lasagna that tastes like beef. Christie, this is the perfect lasagna. -Thank you, Julia. -Mmm. Thank you. For a streamlined, meaty lasagna, start by boiling traditional noodles, then drain them and let them cool on a greased baking sheeting. Instead of making a long-simmered Bolognese, make a quick meaty tomato sauce with a panade, 90% beef, and some crushed tomatoes. Skip the Bchamel and make a no-cook white sauce with cottage cheese, Pecorino, and heavy cream. Assemble the lasagna is a very sturdy fashion in a greased dish, bake for an hour, and let cool for about half an hour before eating. And there you have it, from "Cook's Country," the ultimate hearty beef lasagna. So good. -

Chuckles

Cheers and applause

-Boy, do we love mozzarella. In fact, last year, the average American ate nearly 11 pounds of mozzarella cheese -- I mean, body by cheese have we got. And Jack is here to tell us which supermarket brand of mozzarella should top our pizzas. -So, this is a really interesting taste test. We shredded all the cheeses. Some of them started out as a block. One of them might've already come as shredded. -Interesting. -So, you can dig in. -Okay. -You may want to just use your fingers. There's no great way to do this. -I'm gonna do that. -We did do a test with pizza. The pizza is not here. -I noticed that. -Yeah. A couple things that we're gonna pay attention to -- one is, is there any dryness? Now, we brought the best of the seven shredded cheeses. But all the shredded cheeses are coated with cellulose, and it gives it a little dryness to keep the shreds from clumping. So, can you pick that out? -Okay. -The second this is -- fat level. Some of these are whole milk, and some of them are part skim. Whole-milk cheeses have closer to 48% fat level. The part skim is closer down to 42% or 43% fat. And you can tell the difference in the richness. It also will affect how they melt. Whole-milk cheeses melt really lovely. -Mm-hmm. -The last thing is moisture content. Most of these cheeses are labeled low moisture, which means they have between 45% and 52% moisture content, but our favorites were not labeled low moisture. And we did some lab work. It turns out they're somewhere in between what I think of as pizza cheese, which is a low-moisture mozzarella and that fresh stuff that you might put on a salad. The moisture content there would be about 60%. -Interesting. -So, anything you're noticing off the bat about these three lovely samples of, you know, shredded cheese? -Well, this one I feel like you put Baby Swiss in there instead. It tastes sharper, and it's very interesting. -Good interesting? -I'm trying to figure out if it's a ringer.

Laughs

Am I at the right cheese tasting? -Would I do that to you? -You know, it's not a bad cheese. I wouldn't call it mozzarella, though. This one is the pre-shredded. I can feel it -- powderiness on my tongue. Having said that, sometimes I'm really busy. I love having an option of pre-shredded cheese. -And you're not going to eat it out of a bowl like this. -Oh, I probably would, but...

Laughter

...I agree. Once it's melted, I'm not sure that I would notice it. This is beautiful. It's creamy, it's soft, and it's nicely seasoned, too. Definitely my favorite. -Okay. All right. -All right? -Yeah, you want to see how you did? -I do. -Congratulations, you chose the winner. -Yes! -This is the Polly-O whole milk. It was a block cheese. Now, the studio audience, this was not their favorite... -Interesting. -...which was interesting. But the expert panel, this was their favorite. -I love how neutral and creamy -- It's got a little bit of seasoning. -High moisture, high fat -- it's a good cheese. -I'm gonna check all the way down here and see if this is pre-shredded. -You got this right. -All right. -This is also from Polly-O. It's whole milk, but it's pre-shredded, and, honestly, if you look at it, it kind of looks like it was shredded by a machine... -Yes. -...not by somebody with a box grater. -It's so true, and definitely not by me. That's way too perfect. And let's check out this Baby Swiss that I think you threw in there. -So, this is from Organic Valley. -Huh! -The studio audience loved this. Our expert panel, I think, was downgrading it because it tasted different than the other cheeses. -Mm-hmm. It's sharp. -It's funky... -Right, right. -...and I guess this is a funky audience. -You guys are funky. -You know, they like funky cheese. But it's really not conforming to the classic flavor profile of a mozzarella cheese. -Right. It's almost cheddar-y. Well, there you go. To top your pizza, pick up our winners -- the Polly-O Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese. It runs $5.99 per pound.

Cheers and applause

Today we're making chicken scarpariello. Now, what we know about the dish is that it comes from the area of Naples in Italy -- not Florida. What we don't know is really where that name comes from. So, scarpello in Italian is "shoemaker," so one could patch or "cobble" the dish together, and scarpariello means a shoemaker's assistant, so an apprentice could buy all the stuff on a cheap wage. Now, other people, you know, tend to get a story that's a bit more flowery. The studs of garlic remind them of the nails on the bottom of a shoe. I don't know what's true, but what I do know -- Lan is going to show us how to make great chicken scarpariello. -Yes, yes, I am. This dish is awesome. It features really nicely browned chicken with sausage, peppers, and onions, and you can't go wrong with that. -You really cannot go wrong. Chicken, sausage, peppers, onions -- You had me there. -Yeah, right? One of the other things I love about this dish is you don't dirty too many pans doing it. It all happens right here in this 12-inch skillet. -Weeknight dream. -Right? We've got a tablespoon of oil. I'm just gonna crank it up to medium-high, and while that oil heats up, let's prep the chicken. -All right, the main ingredient. -Yes. I've got 3 pounds of chicken parts here. You can buy them in pieces, you can break down a chicken if you'd like. The fat's been trimmed off, I've cleaned up the pieces a little bit. The last step is just to cut the breasts in half. That helps them cook through a little faster and everything finishes up at the same time. -Great. -I'm just going to cut through this skin. And when you get to the bone, instead of cutting down, I'm just gonna press. -Just cracks right through. -Yeah. -That was great. We're using chicken with the skin on and the bone in. That's going to add a lot of flavor to this dish. -After the pieces are cut in half, pat them dry. Getting rid of that water really speeds up browning, and we want the crisp skin and the flavor. -Okay. -A little bit of salt. If you don't mind... -Sure. -...would you pepper for me? -You got it. All right, I'm the pepper lady. -Yeah. -Just bring me in. -I'm just gonna go wash my hands, and we'll start cooking. -Sounds good. -Now that that oil is smoking, let's get the chicken in the pan. -All right.

Sizzling

That's a good sound. -Right? -And Lan is cooking all the chicken in one batch here, so it's really important to get that pan and the oil super heated. If she were to not let the oil go up to the point where it starts to smoke, the pan would be too cold, all the chicken goes in, that oil temperature drops, and the chicken would steam rather than brown. -I'm putting in the chicken skin side down. I want to make sure I get a good sear and help some of that fat render off. -Okay. -And I'm not gonna touch these and just let them do their thing. It's gonna take about five minutes on this side, we'll flip them over, give them another three to brown the second side. But in the meantime, we can go prep our peppers. -All right, sounds good. -I have one red bell pepper here, and I'm just gonna take the bottom off and the top, but we're not throwing those away. We'll use them. And then open it up, run my knife along the ribs to remove them. -Beautiful pinwheel action you have going on there. -Yeah, right? And then it's already nice and flat, and we'll just go and slice. Now, as for these tops and bottoms, I'm just gonna run a knife through them. They're perfectly good. No reason to not use them. And then we move on to our pickled peppers. I'm using hot cherry peppers for that kick of heat. They're nice and briny and salty. And I'm just gonna cut the top off, scoop out the guts with a spoon, and then run a knife through. Now, this is one of five cherry peppers. It's going to yield about a half a cup once it's prepped. Bridget, this chicken looks great. Five minutes on that skin side gave it this gorgeous color, and three minutes on the bottom -- it's fantastic. I'm gonna get this out of the pan. -All right. So, that pan looks beautiful. That's lots of flavor in there. -Right. So, I have 8 ounces of sweet Italian sausage with the casings removed, and I'm just gonna break it up into kind of bite-size pieces. After it is broken up, I'm just gonna leave it alone, let it brown, stir occasionally. So, it's been about three minutes. This looks great. You can see a bunch of the fat has rendered out, and the sausage has nicely browned. I'm just gonna transfer this to a towel-lined plate to get rid of that extra fat. I'm just gonna pour it out and reserve one table spoon. So, now that the sausage and chicken are done, let's get our vegetables into this skillet. I've got one onion sliced thin and that bell pepper we worked on earlier -- just gonna stir it around as it cooks, and I'm just looking for the vegetables to pick up some color, soften a little bit. It's been about five minutes, and the onions are nice and wilted, as are the peppers. They're starting to color. -It smells so unbelievable in here right now. -Oh, we're not quite done yet. Let's get those cherry peppers in. This is five cloves of minced garlic. -All right. -And lastly, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano. Just gonna give this a stir and make sure that the garlic is cooked out and those aromatics bloom a little bit. This will take about one minute. So, now we're gonna begin building our sauce. This is 1 tablespoon of flour. I'm just gonna sprinkle it in. -So it's not a super-thick sauce. It's just enough to add a little bit of body. -Right. This gives you a nice silky texture, and it clings better to the chicken and the vegetables. I've got 3/4 cup of chicken broth. -All right.

Sizzling

That's a good sound -- deglazing the pan there. -And 2 tablespoons of the brine from those pickled peppers. -A little pickle brine. -Yeah, it's fantastic. -It is. It's sweet, salty, a little sour, a little bit spicy, too. -Yeah, it's perfect. As you can see, it's come up to a simmer. The sauce is starting to tighten up. -Mm-hmm. -And that's it. We're almost there. I'm going to turn this off and stir in that sausage. So, now the chicken goes right on. -It's like the peppers and the sausage are acting as a rack, holding the chicken above all the sauce. -Yeah, the skin is staying well above the liquid, and it's going to stay crispy while the chicken finishes cooking. -That's great. -So, this is going to finish in a 350-degree oven. I've got the rack in the middle position. It's going to take 20, 25 minutes. -Okay, great. -Doesn't that smell great? -It smells amazing. -So, it's been about 20 minutes. -Really? -I'm just going to check the temperature, and I'm looking for the breasts to register about 160 degrees. -There we go. -Perfect. -All right. -And the dark meat, the thighs and the drums, we're looking for 175. These look great. One last bit -- I've got a little bit of chopped parsley. It's about a tablespoon. -Beautiful. -It just adds a little freshness to this and some color. -Now it looks Italian. -Right? Got the colors. You ready to try this? -I sure am. -Here is a little bit of dark meat. -Mmm. -A little bit of the white meat. And the vegetables and sausage. -All right. Oh, you're right. The skin is still nice and crisp. -And the breast meat is still really juicy, really tender. -Yes, I would say that looks juicy and very tender. -Right. -Mmm. Got the sweet flavor coming through with the bell peppers. Got a little kick coming behind it with that briny cherry pepper. -And that sauce, it's nice and silky. It's not running all over the place. It's not broken. It's fantastic. -Thank you, Lan, so much. This is spectacular. Well, it's easy to cobble together dinner if you have the right ingredients, and it's just that simple for chicken scarpariello. Start with browning the chicken, then sausage right in that chicken fat, followed by onions, red peppers, cherry peppers, and a little oregano. Toast flour in the pan, then deglaze with broth and cherry pepper brine. Put the meat back in the pan, and into the oven it goes until it's all cooked through. So, from "Cook's Country," a shoe-in for dinner. It's our fantastic full-flavored chicken scarpariello. And you can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our tastings, testings, and select episodes, on our website, cookscountry.com. -Let us help with dinner tonight. Visit our website anytime for access to this season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings. Or to watch current-season episodes, log on to cookscountry.com.