I received a comment on this week's menu post asking about my sources of inspiration when I cook, specifically for this dish which the write thought was an unusual one. It is unfortunate that this dish is a bad choice to define my creative inspiration -- I wanted to eat fresh crab one more time before we left the Cape, had half a package of lasagna noodles in the pantry and two ears of corn in the fridge and thought: "hmmmm...I can do something with these..." And I was right. L. pronounced this one of my best pasta dishes of all times. It is unfortunate that my kitchen lighting made it look like something from a 1970s cookbook in the image above.
This makes a generous dinner for four and lunch for one the next day.
1/2 package dry lasagna noodles
1 cup fresh crab meat
2 ears of corn, hulled and shucked
1 cup grated white cheddar
1/2 cup shaved Parmesan
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 cups milk
3 Tbsps flour
2 Tbsps butter
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Salt to taste
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the shallots, bay leaf and pepper flakes and cook over medium heat until the shallot pieces are translucent. This will take a minute or so.
Add the flour and mix well to combine with the melted butter-shallot mixture. Lower the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is a rich golden color. This will only take a couple of minutes.
Add the milk and cook, whisking often, until the sauce has started to thicken. Add the grated cheddar and continue to cook until all of the cheese is melted and the sauce is the consistency of wallpaper paste. Mix in the corn and the crab. Taste and add salt. Remove the bay leaf.
Ladle enough of the sauce into a 9" x 9" pan to liberally cover the bottom. Add a layer of lasagna noodles and then ladle on more sauce, enough to cover the noodles. Repeat until you have used up all of the noodles, making sure that you end with a thick layer of sauce. Since you are using uncooked noodles, make sure to press the noodles down into the sauce and ensure that all are covered with it.
Sprinkle with the shaved Parmesan and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to finish cooking in the residual heat for an additional 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and tent with aluminum foil. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting to ensure prettier, uniform portions. I skipped this step and my sauce oozed out onto the plate.
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