No. 2957

Lazagnettes, Philadelphia Style

Lazagnettes a la Philadelphie

Blanch half a pound of lazagnettes. (These are thin bands of paste three-sixteenths of an inch wide.) Drain and put them in a saucepan to cover with some broth (No. 194a); boil and reduce this to almost nothing, then add four ounces of cooked lean ham and eight ounces of mushrooms, both to be cut in small three-sixteenths inch squares; dish in separate layers of lazagnettes and parmesan and cover with thin bechamel sauce (No. 409), into which have mixed meatglaze (No. 402) and tomato sauce (No. 549).

← No. 2956 Gnocquis, Roman Style Macaroni, Rice & Farinaceous No. 2958 Macaroni a la Brignoli →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cut-pasta dish from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, built on three of the book's cross-referenced sauces. The work is mostly in having the components ready; the assembly takes minutes.

What lazagnettes areNarrow ribbons about three-sixteenths of an inch wide, roughly 5 mm — close to the lasagnette still sold under that name, and comparable to a narrow tagliatelle or fettuccine. Half a pound is 8 oz, enough for roughly four as a course.
Blanch, then finish in brothThe blanching is deliberately short: the pasta goes into the saucepan of broth still firm and absorbs the stock as it reduces. Take it from the water several minutes shy of al dente, or it will be soft by the time the broth is gone.
Broth No. 194aThe book's broth, given by cross-reference. Any well-made unsalted chicken or veal stock works; use enough just to cover, since it is reducing to a glaze around the pasta and anything oversalted will concentrate badly.
Meat glaze No. 402Glace de viande — stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A spoonful of good demi-glace, or commercial glace de viande, does the same job. A little goes far; start with a teaspoon in the béchamel and taste.
The béchamel must stay thinIt is a coating sauce, not a binder, and it is being loosened further by tomato sauce and glaze. Aim for something that runs off the spoon in a sheet. A stiff béchamel turns the layers pasty.
Ham and mushroomsCut both to the same 3/16-inch dice as the pasta width — the uniformity is the point. Cook the mushrooms off in butter first to drive out their water, or they will thin the dish on the plate.
Parmesan is unmeasuredThe original gives no quantity. Three ounces grated, scattered between the layers, is in proportion to half a pound of pasta.
Serve at onceNothing here goes into the oven. It is dished, sauced and sent out hot; if you want a glazed top, a minute under a hot broiler is as far as the method allows before the sauce breaks.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its habit of tagging dishes with place names "Philadelphia, Baltimore, Brignoli " seems more often to reflect a house naming convention for garnishes than any documented regional origin. Here the "Philadelphia" tag attaches to a pairing of lean ham and mushrooms. Lazagnettes is a diminutive of lasagne, the older Italian term for a broad sheet of paste; by the 1890s New York grocers were importing Italian dried pastes in a range of cuts, and Ranhofer's many macaroni and paste recipes show how thoroughly they had entered the repertoire of a French-trained American kitchen " served, as here, under béchamel and meat glaze rather than in any Italian manner.