Curry Lasagna

Yes, you did read the title correctly. This post is about a curry lasagna. There are probably herbs in the curry mix somewhere, so I deem it acceptable to discuss here. My friend Sarah was visiting from Boston so we could go to a Bridal Shower for our friend Laura (it was fun and I was wicked jealous of all the kitchen gadgets she got!) but before that we had a couple of days to cook weird and random stuff. Some amazing treats resulted from this cooking fun weekend such as caramel-apple semifreddo, strawberry lemon semifreddo, roasted red pepper hummus, guacamole, mushroom and sun-dried tomato pockets, and most importantly: the curry lasagna.

 I know the layers aren't perfect, but it smelled really good and made us all hungry, so we may have rushed the process.

Some of those recipes will probably be up later, but we just kind of made them and didn't exactly measure so I have to go back and see what it was we actually did. They were all fantastic, and only a few had fresh herbs, and I feel it is my responsibility to share these treats with the world.

Let's start with the curry lasagna. I really wanted to make something with curry since it's one of my favorite things in the whole world. To be more specific, I'm talking about Japanese curry. I usually use S&B Golden Curry boxes (found in the Asian section of your local supermarket). So, we knew curry was a definite plan. But then we wanted to be creative with it so of course we thought of fusion. Sarah, my brother Mark, and I all brainstormed our way to success. Curry risotto, while potentially delicious, is too similar to how curry is anyway, so there's no point to that. Curry on spaghetti? Been there, done that. Curry lasagna? There is no way that could fail. And so the adventure began.

There's no actual recipe, but it's quite easy to explain. We cut up the onions, carrots, and potatoes into really really small adorable pieces and cooked them for a bit. Then we added a package of ground turkey, probably about 1.5 lbs, and cooked it until it was brown. Since it's a lasagna we wanted it to be a little more tomato-y then curry normally is so we tossed in a small can of tomato paste. Then we followed the directions on the box. Simmer in some water, remove from heat, add curry cubes, mix mix mix, heat again, simmer for a bit, and it's done.

We mixed a pint of ricotta with 2 eggs and some salt and pepper. Cooked the lasagna noodles like normal. Put some curry into the lasagna pan, layer with noodles, spread some ricotta, sprinkle some cheddar cheese, spoon on curry, and repeat. Sprinkle cheddar on the top layer. We baked it at 375 for about 30 minutes.

When it's piping, burning, oozing hot all you can taste is the curry, but when you let it cool for a few minutes you can taste the cheeses and feel the texture differences. It's a little strange to have lasagna with small pieces of potato, but I found it to be pleasing. Success!

There are some variations that I want to try. I think it would be interesting to use some sort of vegetable in place of the lasagna noodles, and some more Italian flavoring would be good. Next time I will definitely add fresh basil and some more tomato. Curry has a very deep and savory flavor and I hope the basil and tomato will give it a slight hint of refreshing sharpness. I would also like to add some sort of flavor to the ricotta, but I haven't decided yet. Maybe that's where I should put the basil. Who knows? It might be awesome or it might be an epic fail. I'm excited to try.