Seafood Lasagna

Serves 6-8

Laurie

ingredients

2 pounds mussels
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 chopped shallots
2 tbs oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
3/4 pounds monkfish or lobster, or part monkfish and part lobster, cut in good-size chunks
salt
freshly ground pepper
3/4 pound sea scallops
3/4 pound peeled shrimp
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1/2-3/4 cup milk or light cream
9 strips lasagna
5 ounces fresh goat cheese or ricotta
3-4 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

directions

1
Scrub mussels thoroughly and remove their beards. Put the wine in a large, heavy saucepan with the shallots, bring to a boil, and simmer about 1 minute (2 minutes if using scallions instead of shallots); add the mussels, cover, and cook over lively heat a few minutes, until the mussels have opened. Remove the mussels from their shells, discarding the shells but reserving the cooking liquid.
2
Hear the oil in a skillet then saute the onion, stirring occasionally, until limp. Add the tomatoes and cook down rapidly to boil off some of the juice. Add the monkfish and/or lobster and a little salt and pepper, cover, and cook gently for five minutes, turning the pieces once. Add the scallops and shrimp and continue cooking 5 minutes, tossing and stirring.
3
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Meanwhile, prepare the seafood cream sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour and cook over gentle heat, stirring, for 2 minutes. Off heat, strain the reserved mussel cooking liquid into the butter and flour (you should have about 1 cup) and add enough milk or the light cream to make a total of 1 1/2 cups. Return to the heat and whisk until the sauce thickens and is smooth. When the past water has come to a rolling boil, add the lasagna, stirring each piece until it is immersed in the water, and cook until done al dente. Drain.
4
To assemble the lasagna, place three strips of pasta on the bottom of a lightly oil shallow 10 x 8 inch baking dish. Spoon pieces of monkfish and/or lobster and shrimp and scallops on top. If the tomato sauce left in the pan is even a bit think or watery, rapidly boil it down until thick, then spoon that over the seafood. Lay another 3 strips of pasta over the sauce and seafood and over that with the mussels interspersed with blobs of goat cheese or ricotta. Place the final layer of pasta on top, then spread with the cream sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover lightly with fool, and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes (only 15 minutes if all the elements of the dish are warm when assembled), then 5 minutes uncovered. It should be bubbly inside and lightly browned on top.
5
Serves 6-8.