Lasagna 101: Cooking with kids

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My kids love to make fresh pasta; they love mixing the dough, rolling out the sheets of pasta, then cranking out fine strands of linguine or angel hair onto the floured counter. They also love testing the pasta’s doneness by throwing it against the wall. (I’m still not convinced of the efficacy of this, but hey, it’s one of the few things that Sophie still likes more than Hannah Montana, so I’ll take it.)

Last weekend, in an attempt to spin the all-noodle dinner, I remembered Russ Parsons’ story about making free-form lasagna and decided to try it out on the girls. While they were at a birthday party, I made a quick tomato sauce using farmers market tomatoes and rolled out sheets of pasta to dry; I set out a bowl of pesto sauce I’d made a few days earlier, another of fresh ricotta. When the girls got home, play-worn and desperately needing something other than cake, all I had to do was cook the pasta.

Then they each took turns building their dinner, one architectural layer at a time. A dusting of grated Parmesan. A glass of milk. A lot of fun.

-- Amy Scattergood

Photos by Amy Scattergood