Seafood Lasagna with Béchamel & Buckwheat Noodles

The fabulous thing about the pasta recipe is that is takes literally five minutes to make, so I like to make the more time consuming sauces first so the moment the noodles are ready, I can assemble the lasagna without having to wait.

I love a good béchamel sauce just like any other pasta junkie, especially those who are particularly keen on macaroni and cheese. Last week, I was out of Annie’s gluten free macaroni and cheese for Leo, so he asked me to make him my homemade version. With out batting an eye, I pulled out the butter and milk from my fridge, all of my flours from the pantry, measuring spoons from my utensils drawer, flicked the knob on my stove to ignite the gas flame to medium and got to work. Using tablespoon amounts, I quickly mise-d out my flour combination and whisked them to amalgamate. I cut a stick of butter in half; one half went back in the fridge while the other half got quickly diced and so I started my béchamel in the traditional fashion. I swirled the butter in the pan so it wouldn’t sit in the middle, pool and brown. The moment the butter foamed, I added my flours and whisked until the mixture was bubbling. I waited, lifted the pan and swirled and whisked again until the mixture began to thicken. Then, in a slow steady stream, I poured in half the milk, and whisked. Like magic, the mixture quickly began to thicken just like I knew it should and would. I added the second half of the milk and and whisked some more. Never mind the tendinitis in my shoulder, this was getting more gorgeous by the minute. I turned the heat down to a simmer and double backed to grab the whole nutmeg and white pepper from my pantry and got my micro plane grater on my way back to the stove. I added half the kosher salt, white pepper and nutmeg and whisked yet again to combine. The tasting spoon delivered a very mellow, incredibly smooth béchamel that tasted just as good as all those decadent pasta nights with the gluten-laden versions from a decade ago. Indeed, my olfactory memory banks are like Fort Knox. I literally forget nothing. The mouth feel, the aromas, it was all coming back to me. Almost there. Still needs that pop at the end. The base notes were perfect with that delicate nutty flavor, but the top notes still needed that final tap pop that, at the very last second, sends an unmistakable, subtle shock wave of pleasure down your tongue making you want to double dip. I quickly added the other half of the salt. It was almost like as if I had squirted a dash of lemon juice into the mix; the sauce was spot on. Since I was making macaroni and cheese, I added the cheeses, whisked until it was completely melted, had one final taste to see if I needed to adjust the seasoning with additional salt and pepper; I did not so I asked Leo to come over and have a taste.

“MMMM! Mommy, this is even better than my regular cheese!”

I smothered some Jovial gluten free fusilli noodles and realized, that by just being in the moment with my son, I had brought béchamel back to life, only better.

This is the sauce I am using in the lasagna, because the base notes compliment the sweetness of the shrimp and crab so beautifully. The cream will also keep the shellfish from over-cooking which is always the delicate achievement with seafood lasagna. I also added a loving handful of tarragon to dance on your tongue long after the sweetness of the carrot sauce announces itself when that first bite is taken, next comes the creamy seafood and the last wave, like a glance over the shoulder as you say good-bye is the tarragon. Anyhow, I digress. More on that carrot sauce (yes, not acidic tomato sauce here!) in a moment. For now, let’s make some béchamel.

Gluten Free Béchamel Sauce

4 tablespoons sweet cream butter

2 tablespoons potato starch
2 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 tablespoon sorghum flour
1 tablespoon glutinous rice flour
1 teaspoon guar gum (if you have a legume allergy, use potato flour here)

5 cups whole milk

3/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup monteray jack cheese, coarsely grated
1/2 cup mozzarella, grated
1/3 cup tarragon, finely chopped

additional salt and pepper to taste if needed

Whisk the flours together in a small bowl to amalgamate.

In a non-reactive sauce pan with at least 3 inch sides, melt the butter. When it foams, add the flour mixture and whisk to smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil and then, in a slow steady stream, add the whole milk, whisking constantly so no lumps form. Reduce the flame to a simmer. The sauce will thicken quickly, which is perfect. Whisk in the white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.

Whisk in the cheese until it has completely melted followed by the tarragon. Adjust the seasoning if needed. If the tarragon is weak in flavor, you may need to do so.

The following sauce, as well as the buckwheat pasta noodle recipe, are ones that I discovered while reading the cookbook, Simple Cuisine, by one of my culinary idols, John-Georges Vongerichten. The buckwheat noodles are below (which is drastically different than his recipe) while the carrot sauce had only some minor adjustments. I didn’t juice the carrots myself, I just went down to Whole Foods and had them juice them for me since I don’t own a juicer. I also doubled the spices so the gorgeous sweetness of the sauce would shine through in this very rich lasagna.

Spicy Carrot Sauce

2 cups fresh carrot juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Bring the carrot juice and spices to a boil. Whisk in the butter. Keep warm on the stove until ready to use.

Sauteed Button Mushrooms

2 cups sliced white button mushrooms
1 cup finely diced red onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon pure olive oil

Melt the butter in the oil in a large sautée pan. Add the red onions and sweat until translucent. Add the onions and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes and the mixture is caramelized.

Set aside.

Make your noodles:

Making this recipe gluten free took some tweaking to make gluten free and still have that trademark elasticity akin to all pastas. Luckily, I’ve been focusing my energies on pasta as of late, so my understanding of where I needed to go and why was swift. I had to double the guar gum to get the pasta to hold its shape (again, if you have a legume allergy, use potato flour. The potato flour will make for a denser result, but the pasta will hold its shape beautifully.) and I had to adjust the volume of liquid so the dough would come together, but after a couple trials, I nailed it. Be sure to triple the recipe for a 9 x 13 inch lasagna.

Gluten Free Buckwheat Pasta

¾ cup buckwheat flour
¼ cup potato starch
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
2 tablespoons glutinous rice flour
2 teaspoons guar gum
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon + teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons whole milk
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and pulse until the dough folds in on itself. Press the dough together as you lift it out of the mixing bowl. Knead to smooth on a very clean counter. No additional flour required.

Wrap in cellophane and refrigerate if not rolling out immediately.

To roll out: cut the dough in half and shape each piece into a rectangle.

Roll to a ¼ inch thickness with a rolling pin, reshaping as needed to maintain uniformity.

Trim the edges with a very sharp knife so your edges are perfectly straight. Measure the bottom of your lasagna pan and trim the rectangles accordingly.

Pass through your pasta machine on the lowest setting twice and then on setting one once.

I trimmed my sheets to be 3 inches wide and 13 inches long.

Now, assemble your lasagna:

1 pound wild caught shrimp, cleaned and sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 pound fresh lump crab meat

2 cups grated gruyere cheese

Spoon some carrot juice over the bottom of your lasagna pan. Lay down a layer of the raw buckwheat noodles followed by a scattering of the sautéed mushrooms and red onion. Ladle the béchamel over the noodles and mushrooms. Arrange some of the shrimp and a handful of the crab over the béchamel. (Not too much, though. Ration out the shellfish in accordance with the size of your pan and the number of layers. I did four layers for mine but didn’t really count how many shrimp I used per layer, sorry!)

Top the shellfish with another layer of the carrot sauce. Repeat until your ingredients are used up. You may have some béchamel left over, so save if for some mac n’ cheese when the moment strikes.

You should finish with a final layer of buckwheat noodles. Cover with carrot sauce. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the gruyere and bake until bubbly, about 10-15 minutes.

Please note: I baked the lasagna pictured here the day before the photo shoot. To prevent the cheese from over-browning, I just added some extra cheese for that nice melty finish. Yours will be unmistakably perfect when you pull yours out.