My Grandfather's family on my mom's side comes from Sicily, and so when I had the chance to go to Italy a few years ago, (we we living in Germany at the time) I was very excited. I felt at home in Germany, people there are a lot like me, very particular about food and keeping things looking nice, but since we had moved there I had not traveled much outside Germany, so I wasn't sure what it would be like.
Italy was like coming home in a way I really can't explain. My husband drove us all the way there from Bavaria through Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and northern Italy all the way down to Sorrento. By the time we arrived in Sorrento, I had a new found respect for Italian drivers. You always hear that Italian drivers are terrible, that is absolutely not true. Italian drivers have their own way of approaching the rules of driving. Stop signs for example, are totally optional. But you don't just drive through them and crash into other cars, you honk as you approach a blind corner or a stopping point and let the other drivers know you are coming, then you brake or accelerate as needed. This driving style is a cultural reflection of Italian personality. You say hello, and depending on the response you get, you continue in an appropriate way. I drive like a German. My husband, however, drives like an Italian so we fit right in.
Once we were on the streets walking among the buildings and the people, taking boat rides to Capri and the train to Pompeii and Herculaneum, I was completely at home. In Germany, I was always afraid I would say something wrong in my terrible German. In Italy, even though I'm sure I pronounced things with a Spanish accent, people were so nice and welcoming and open. My grandmother had a music box that my uncle brought home for her when he was stationed in Italy after the war, it was made in Sorrento and plays Torna a Surriento. Maybe it's the sunshine, or maybe some genetic part of me just fits in there, but I will always feel like Sorrento is another home.
When I went to Italy, I was overweight by 20 or 30 pounds, and so was motivated to eat well while I was there. I remember trying to eat fairly low carb, but having a really hard time with breakfasts. Our hotel included breakfast, and in order to cut expenses, we tried to eat a large free breakfast and then just eat dinner. The hotels pretty much had continental breakfasts. My typical breakfast while there was two small whole grain rolls with large amounts of cream cheese, eggs if they had them, and plain whole milk yogurt with honey and fruit. Not very low carb, although better than American continental breakfasts which rely on pancakes, waffles, toast and cold cereals.
For dinners we would go out to nearby restaurants and eat whatever looked good. I admit I ate pasta although I tried to eat seafood as much as possible--grilled calamari is so incredibly delicious! Even so, by the time I got back home to Germany I had lost 10 pounds. Maybe it was the fasting between breakfast and dinner (often 12 hours), or maybe it was the lack of preservatives and the overly processed foods. Real Italian lasagna is a simple layering of pasta and cheese with a little sauce cooked in an oven and topped with cheese. The sauce was very tasty and there wasn't a lot of it. The cheese was ricotta mixed with herbs, topped with a little fresh mozzarella. This was very similar to my mom's lasagna.
When I went all-out low carb high fat, I looked and looked for a good low carb lasagne recipe that would work for me. I found Linda's Low Carb Lasagna which is delicious, but for true LCHF, I needed more fat and less protein. I loved the addition of the spinach though and the use of cream cheese instead of ricotta and decided to play around with the ingredients until I got the right maconutrient ratios for me. The result is a vegetarian lasagne with lots of mushrooms and cheese and a moderate amount of sauce. It isn't a true "lasagne" because there are no pasta-like layers, but I am sticking to the name:
Sara's LCHF Lasagne
24 ounces mushrooms sliced
4 T. butter
24 oz. frozen spinach
8 oz. full fat cream cheese, softened
1 egg
3 cups shredded full fat mozzarella cheese
6 oz. tomato paste
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
Saute the mushrooms in butter.
Add tomato paste, 12 ounces water and dried herbs, mix well and simmer for 1/2 to 1 hour.
Thaw frozen spinach, and drain thoroughly.
Add cream cheese to spinach and mix well.
Add in egg, and stir until well incorporated.
In 9 X 12 baking dish, layer 1/2 of the mushroom sauce, 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella, all of the spinach mixture, 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella, 1/2 of the mushroom sauce and top off with 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Makes 6 servings
No comments:
Post a Comment