The lasagna with artichoke sauce and speck is a succulent, flavorful, and hearty main course, seasoned with a creamy sauce made from artichokes and crispy speck. It’s a dish to prepare on festive days or special occasions. The idea for the seasoning came to me while watching an episode of “Prova del cuoco” where Sergio Barzetti was preparing a light cream based on artichokes and speck.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 6 people
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 2.2 lbs Egg Lasagna (fresh)
- 7 oz Speck
- 3 Artichokes
- 3.4 cups Milk
- 1.76 oz All-purpose Flour
- to taste Fine Salt
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- to taste Pepper
- 5 tablespoons Cheese (grated)
- 3.5 oz Emmental
- to taste Parsley
Preparation
Clean the artichokes, removing the outer leaves, and extract the “hearts”.
Cut them in half, remove the internal “choke”, and then cut them into wedges. Clean the stems and cut them into not too large pieces.
Place the cleaned artichokes and stems in cold water with parsley, which, like lemon juice, will prevent the artichokes from darkening but without imparting the acidic note that would be off-putting in this preparation.
Meanwhile, sauté the speck over high heat in a preheated non-stick pan, without adding fat; when it’s crispy, transfer it to a plate.
Grate the cheese and coarsely chop the Emmental.
Drain, dry the artichokes, and sauté them over high heat for a couple of minutes with the extra virgin olive oil in the same pan as the speck.
Finally, lower the heat, cover, and let them cook over low heat for about 15/20 minutes or until they start to become tender when pierced with a fork (add some tablespoons of water if necessary).
Prepare the artichoke sauce Warm the milk in a saucepan with a pinch of salt and pepper.
As soon as the artichokes are cooked, sift the flour and pour it into the warm milk, mix well, pour it slowly over the artichokes, and stir. A delicious cream will quickly form.
Adjust salt and pepper if necessary, turn off the heat and start assembling the lasagna.
Cover the bottom of a baking dish with some artichoke sauce, place a sheet of pasta, cover with more sauce, grated cheese, Emmental, and chopped speck. Continue like this until all ingredients are used. Reserve some artichokes and speck for decoration on the lasagna. Bake at 392°F, in a preheated oven, on the middle rack, for about 20 minutes. Serve the lasagna hot, it’s exquisite.
