Lots of food: Day 2 aka LASAGNA!

We're getting fat now. Everything we had today was absolutely magnificent. It really almost makes me cry with joy. I was really upset it was just the 3 of us and we didn't have more people to share this splendor with.
We had:
-Lasagna [CL]
-Focaccia Bread [PR]
-Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream [CL/PC]

Oh my god, lasagna is so good.
I always make my own sauce. I'm a purist. I can't help it. How I made it this time:
For the sauce:1 med-large onion
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
a couple of tomatoes (anytime I put canned tomatoes in something I also throw in some fresh ones, too)
a few fistfuls of ripped up spinach
~1 lb. ground beef
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 regular (14 oz?) can of diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
a lot of garlic
fresh basil, oregano, thyme
a little red wine and sugar is good too
s/p

Other things that go well in lasagna:
sweet italian sausage (I love doing this but the ball and chain won't let me)
zucchini (not only good but adds a little protein for those vegetarian-types)
mushrooms (I can't stand them but everyone else likes them)
roasted red peppers (I tried to do it this time but anita's weird oven burnt my pepper all to hell)

Brown your meat, drain and set aside. Chop up the onions and get them frying in way more olive oil than you would normally use. Yes, we like olive oil. Get those mono-unsaturateds, baby. Throw in the garlic after a few minutes.
Add chopped peppers and cook for a few more minutes.
Add chopped fresh tomatoes, if using, and let go for a couple more minutes.
Add the spinach and ground beef. Cook just til spinach starts to wilt and beef has reheated.
Add all your canned goods, herbs, s/p, and a shot of red wine and sugar if you've got it.
Bring the pot up to heat and then simmer on low as long as you like. Give it at least 15 minutes before tasting and adjusting.

Constructing the masterpiece:
People have their different methods. i don't think any one way is better as long as you've got all the ingredients. This is just how I do it.
Get the biggest damn baking dish you can find that will fit in your oven because, in my opinion, you can never make too much lasagna. Place a thin layer of the sauce on the bottome of the pan.
Layer noodles.
Layer riccota cheese. And please don't screw this up by getting low-fat. Eating a baking dish of cheese is still eating a baking dish of cheese. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's going to be healthy somehow.
Layer sauce.
Layer mozzarella/parmesan/provolone/asiago mix or individual cheese and don't be stingy.
Repeat until there's no room left. I can only ever make 3 layers. Some people make 7 layer lasagna. I don't know how you could do this unless it barely has anything but noodles in it. Or if you've got a really deep pan which I've been on the lookout for forever. Just make sure and top the lasagna with sauce and cheese. I also like to add fresh basil leaves to the middle layer. I can't get enough basil.
Cover with foil and bake at 375F for about 40 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 10-15 minutes. This gives the top a nice brown to it. Let it cool for a few minutes before tearing into it.

Focaccia Bread:
note: the bread pictured with the lasagna is not the focaccia bread. It is actually the last of the ciabatta bread. This is the focaccia bread.

Best focaccia bread ever. It takes 2 days to make. The first day is easy. You make a poolish (pre-ferment), leave it out for a few hours and then refrigerate. See the Ciabatta bread entry for poolish recipe.
The second day is the beast. It's not that it's difficult, it just takes a lot of time. Probably around 4-5 hrs til ready to eat but, my god, it is soo freakin good.
Like this:
Take the poolish out of the fridge an hour before ready to start to take of the chill. For the focaccia bread you will need:
12 oz/ 2& 2/3 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt (I go a little less on this)
6oz water, lukewarm
3 oz olive oil
the rest of the yeast packet, ~2 tsp/0.22 oz
1/4 - 1/2 cup of herb oil
note: the herb oil is the best flavoring agent to use. To make, simply warm (~100F) a cup of olive oil and add any fresh or dried herbs and other seasonings. Allow to the herbs to steep, infusing it with their flavor. Good things to use: basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, herbs de provence, salt, pepper, garlic, or anything else you like.

Stir together flour, salt, and yeast. Add water, oil, and poolish. Stir to mix for about 5 minutes to work the gluten. The dough, much like the ciabatta bread, is VERY light and sticky. You also work it in a similar manner. The main difference is you let the focaccia bread ferment longer. The point is to allow the thin, light dough to fill with gas from fermenting and create large air pockets all throughout the finished bread. This is what the dough looks like:


Once your dough is mixed, generously flour your work area. You don't want the dough to stick to the counter as you want to work it as gently as possible.
Transfer the dough to the counter, dust liberally with flour, and pat into a rectangle. Wait 5 minutes for the dough to relax.
Coat your hands with flour and stretch the dough from each end to twice its size and fold it over on itself, letter style, back to a rectangle. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil, dust well with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the stretch, fold, mist, cover routine. Wait 30 minutes and repeat once more. Now let the dough ferment for an hour.
Line a 17 by 12 inch sheet pan with parchment paper and drizzle ~1/4 cup of olive oil onto it. Yes, you will need a pan with a lip on it, otherwise you will get oil all over the place. Spread the oil over the paper with your hands so that the entire sheet is covered. As gently as possible, using your hands or a pastry scraper, transfer the dough to the pan retaining its rectangular shape as much as possible.
Spoon half of the herb oil over the dough. Use your fingertips to dimple the dough and spread it to fill the pan simultaneously. Be careful not to tear or rip the dough and try to keep the thickness as uniform as possible. Don't worry if it doesn't fill the entire pan. It will enlarge as it proofs. Use more oil to make sure that the entire surface is coated with oil. Add any other toppings you might want.
Toppings:
tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, olives, nuts, herbs, peppers.
Cheeses can go on right before you bake or during baking. I would also put sun-dried tomatoes on during baking since you cook at 450F and they tend to burn.

Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof for 2 hours. About 15 min before baking drizzle on more herb oil, if you want. It adds a ton of flavor and even though it seems like a lot the bread will absorb it. Dimple it in like before and allow the dough to relax for 15-30 min before baking. The dough should be at least 1inch thick. Mine is usually a lot thicker than this.
Preheat the oven to 500F. Place the pan in the oven on the middle rack and lower the heat to 450F. Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees, add any other toppings, and continue to bake for 5-10 more minutes. The dough will turn golden brown.
Remove from the oven and transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.




Chocolate Ice Cream:
For the ice cream I followed the same recipe as previously posted for the vanilla ice cream. see post: ice cream.
For chocolate, obviously don't put a vanilla bean in it. Melt ~60 grams of chocolate (I used small size semi-sweet chocolate chips) in a double boiler and add to the cream just before straining. Continue in the usual manner.
I did get a new book, thanks Jake, called On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It discusses the making of ice cream and has various ratios of milk fat, egg yolk, non-fat milk components, sugar, and others. I didn't get a chance to go through that part of the chapter before making the ice cream but from my first time I felt the Professional Chef went a little high on the egg yolk count. 15 yolks for 1.44 L of ice cream to be exact. I went slightly lower in my first attempts and, although I haven't done the math yet, I think On Food and Cooking echoes that idea. Some of the recipes have a much higher % weight made up by egg yolks compared to others. So far, the chocolate ice cream is the best I've made and I decreased the egg yolk content on this one. Hell, I'll just give you the recipe, but check the original ice cream post for the method.
You need:
1.5 cups whole milk
1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
100g sugar
good pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
50g chocolate, melted

This is the cream just prior to processing and freezing. mmmmmmm