This week has been hectic, and the weekend is going to be even busier than the last one! Last week it was dinner, drinks and dancing with some friends on Friday, a wedding on Saturday, and a family barbecue on Sunday. Today we have another barbecue, plus a beach handball tournament tomorrow (I won’t be playing though, just working on my tan and watching), and I’ll be catching a plane to go to Berlin at 7AM on Sunday. Phew! I’ll be in Berlin until next Friday and I haven’t had time to schedule regular posts, so I’ll be blogging about the city. Hopefully you’ll enjoy that.

Today’s recipe is a very fancy one, but  so, so worth it. It’s by the chef from a great restaurant in Bilbao (called Etxanobe) that my mom made for a special dinner a couple of weeks ago. Since they were some leftovers, we ate there the following day and tasted it, of course. It was delicious! Definitely one of the best dishes I’ve had in a while.

Cold Anchovy Lasagna

Adapted from Fernando Canales of the Etxanobe restaurant
You have to prepare each component of the lasagna individually, and then you’ll layer/present everything.

Anchovies

• 32 fresh anchovies (not canned!) Check out how to clean them here
• Apple or cider vinegar
• Sea salt, olive oil

Wash and clean the anchovies with a lot of cold water. Remove the heads, etc. and keep the “meat” only. Line them all up next to each other on a cutting board  and cut them a bit so they’re all the same size. Cover the bottom of a big platter with sea salt. Place the anchovies on top of the salt. Then mix apple/cider vinegar with water (3:1 ratio) and pour it over the anchovies in the platter, and marinate them for about three hours.

Piquillo pepper sauce

• 1 can Piquillo pepper
• Olive oil, sugar, salt

Cook the pepper over low heat with a bit of olive oil, sugar and salt. After approximately 20 minutes and when we see that the pepper is tender, pureé it until you obtain a red sauce. Strain it to get rid of any seeds.

Tomato sauce

• 1.8-2lb vine tomatoes (about 8); they have to be very very ripe. You need about 1.75lb of clean (seedless) tomatoes.
• 7oz olive oil (so the seedless/clean tomato to olive oil ratio is 3:1)
• Sugar, salt

Cut the tomato in half, not from top to bottom, but in the opposite direction (from left to right, for a lack of a better way to explain it). This way you’ll have access to all the seeds and you’ll be able to remove them easier. Puree it very well together with the olive oil and a bit of sugar and salt, then strain it.

Cream

• Cream cheese (about half a package)
• Heavy cream

Mix the cream cheese (you can substitute part of it for mascarpone if you wish) with heavy cream at a 3:1 ratio. You can do this by hand in a medium sized bowl. Add a bit of salt, to taste.

Parsley oil

• A few handfuls of parsley
• Enough olive oil to cover all the parsley

Finely chop the parsley leaves. Pour into the blender glass, cover the leaves with olive oil, and puree it very well until you obtain a green oil.

Wonton wrappers

• 1 package wonton wrappers
• Olive oil for the parchment paper

Fill a lowish but large pan (like this one from Ikea) with water and a bit of olive oil, heat it until it boils. While the water heats separate the wrappers from each other, and prepare another bowl with very cold water (you can place that bowl inside another bowl that contains ice so that it’s even colder). Also, lay out a big sheet of parchment paper brushed with olive oil.

Cook five or six wrappers at a time (and place them in the water one by one, otherwise they’ll stick), for a half a minute or one minute. Take the wontons out and submerge them in the cold water bowl to stop the cooking process. This is done so that they’re easier to manipulate. Place them on top of the parchment paper with oil.

Assembly

Layer a wonton wrapper, spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on top, then cover it with another wonton. Add a layer of the marinated anchovies on top. This will be the actual lasagna.

Fill a soup/pasta plate with the tomato sauce. Place the lasagna on top of the tomato sauce carefully. Serve with a bit of parsley oil and piquillo pepper sauce as seen in the photo.

What do you think? Share your opinion in the comments.