Mom’s Musings

THREE CHEESE TEASER (Recipe of Lynn Hersman, from The Lynden Tribune’s My Favorite Recipe Cookbook, 1988.)

Sauce Ingredients:

½ Tablespoon butter

½ cup finely chopped onions

1 clove minced garlic

14 ounces stewed tomatoes, undrained

3 ounces tomato paste

2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

½ teaspoon dried basil leaves

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Sauté onions and garlic in butter in a large sauce pan. Add remaining ingredients and ¾ cup water. Crush tomatoes with a fork. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. Keep covered and stir occasionally.

Pasta Ingredients:

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup water

½ cup plus 3 Tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

dash of salt

Beat all ingredients in a medium bowl with an electric mixer just until smooth. Let mixture rest at least 30 minutes. Slowly heat an 8″ non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add 3 Tablespoons batter and quickly rotate the pan to evenly coat the bottom. Keep heating just until the top appears dry, but not brown. Gently lift out of pan and cool on a wire rack. Repeat the process with the remaining batter. Now, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Filling Ingredients:

¾ pound low-fat cottage cheese

1 heaping cup low-fat mozzarella in small cubes

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 Tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

Combine all ingredients. Mix to blend well. Spread a large ¼ cup of filling down the center of each pasta piece, and roll up.

Final assembly:

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 large mushrooms, sliced

Divide sauce into two equal portions. Pour ¾ cup of sauce into a 12″x8″x2″ baking dish. Arrange 8 rolled pasta pieces seam side down in the dish. Place remaining rolls on top of bottom layer (4 to 5 on top layer). Use remaining sauce to cover the rolls. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, arrange mushrooms attractively on top. Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serves 8-10.

This is what I made for a special dinner tonight. It was, admittedly, time-consuming to prepare, but SO delicious! I served this entrée with Chop Salad, which is a simple fresh salad of cubed cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions, seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar. The only thing that could have made this dinner better would have been hot, crusty French bread.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.