Lasagna with a Twist: Stew Style

I've written before about my love for Lasagna. With its glorious balance of noodle, sauce and cheese it easily makes my list of favorite foods. The problem is I almost always end up with leftover sheets of lasagna noodles but there aren't quite enough to make another lasagna.

I usually just break them up and add them to soups, but this time, I decided to try turning lasagna into a stew. It was a good call. This simple stew takes far less effort than making a lasagna yet it has the same soul warming texture and enough umami to make a smile blossom on your face, even on the dreariest of winter days.

I've borrowed a few tricks I've picked up while developing my lasagna recipe as well as my ragù alla bolognese to make an ultra flavorful Lasagna stew that comes together in under half an hour.

The first key to building a stew with great flavor is to use a mixture of pork and beef. In this case I've used some bacon, which not only adds a subtle smoky flavor it also releases enough fat to saute the aromatics.

This leads me to the second trick, which is to take advantage of the Maillard reaction by browning both the meat and the vegetables. To make this process go faster, it's important to chop the vegetables as small as possible, this increases the total surface area exposed to the heat source, thus speeding up the browning. For the onions a fine dice of about 1/8 inch should get them to caramelize in about 10 minutes instead of the 30 minutes a medium dice might take.

The last trick is actually more of a secret ingredient. It's not the easiest thing to find, but porcini powder has an almost magical ability to instantly add bold meaty flavor to any dish and it does wonders for this stew. If you can't find it, you can make your own by putting dried porcinis into a clean coffee grinder and running it until there are no chunks left.

To finish off the stew, I add some fresh bocconcini (mini mozzarella balls) and cook them just long enough so that they melt into gooey pools of cheese. Topped with a generous dusting of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and you have a delightfully satisfying Lasagna in the form of a stew.