This is an awesome lasagna. I’m not kidding, it’s really, really good. Unless you don’t like mushrooms, of course, in which case I can’t help you. This is all about the mushrooms. And the cheese.

I got the idea for this lasagna from a recipe in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, but I embellished it a bit with extra cheese and a generous amount of sausage, because I tend to feel that sausage makes everything better. One technique of hers that I think is really key here is adding the porcini soaking liquid to the bechamel. It gives the creamy sauce an earthy perfume that I find irresistible.

The last time we made this we fully intended to make fresh pasta sheets, but I got tired at the last minute and pulled out some oven-ready lasagna noodles. I definitely want to try it with homemade, though, I think it would be ethereally exquisite. Or should that be exquisitely ethereal?

Mushroom Lasagna (a suggested recipe – adapt to your own taste)

• 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
• 3 portobello mushrooms, chopped
• 1 lb. button mushrooms, chopped
• 1 shallot or onion, chopped
• 1 pound loose pork sausage
• handful chopped parsley (optional)
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 package (or a little less) oven-ready lasagna noodles, or about a pound fresh cooked lasagna noodles
• 1 lb ricotta
• small round of mozzarella cheese, sliced

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Put the porcini in a bowl and pour about a cup of hot water over them. Let them sit while you do the sauce and filling.

Melt the butter in a heavy pot. Add the flour and whisk up well, then cook over medium heat until it gets foamy and golden. Pour in a cup of milk and whisk well, then gradually add the second cup of milk. Bring to a low simmer and cook, whisking occasionally.

Saute the pork sausage in a skillet until fully cooked and broken up. Drain off the fat.

In a large skillet, heat a few good dollops of olive oil and add the shallot. Cook until a bit soft, then add all the chopped mushrooms. Cook until soft and fragrant. Dump in the sausage and stir. Pull the porcini out of their soaking liquid (don’t get rid of it!), roughly chop, and add them to the pan as well. Stir in parsley, if using.

Add the porcini liquid to the simmering white sauce and whisk it thoroughly. The sauce should be thickening to a good gravy consistency. If it’s too thick, add more milk. When it’s a good texture, take it off the heat and build your lasagna.

Smear some sauce in the bottom of a 9″x13″ roasting pan. Lay out your noodles in the appropriate spacing (check the box instructions). Smear more sauce on, ladle on plenty of mushroom-sausage filling, then drop chunks of ricotta all over. Scatter a little mozzarella. Lay on more noodles and repeat until the pan is full. When you put on the last layer of noodles, top with more mozzarella and pour over all the remaining sauce. Cover tightly with foil. Bake about half an hour, then remove the foil and bake another ten minutes, until the lasagna is bubbling nicely and the cheese on top is just browning.

Let cool slightly before digging in. Makes great leftovers.

For those who have not had a large Rubbermaid container of leftover curried eggs to work through this week, and are therefore not completely burned out on them, here’s a recipe (I omitted to include it in my Easter brunch report, obviously a mistake).

Ideally, this should be done with freshly found Easter eggs, wet with dew, delivered to the kitchen by victorious children, anxious to get back out into the fray. The finished dish will be ready by the time all the hunting is done, assuming you’ve begun the prep beforehand.

If you have no children or Easter eggs available, however, you can boil eggs just for this purpose. You could even make them sometime other than Easter. I won’t tell.

Curried Eggs

adapted from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas

• 6 eggs, not too fresh (fresh eggs are hard to peel)
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 2 Tbsp dried dill or 4 Tbsp fresh chopped dill
• 1 cup chopped button mushrooms
• salt and pepper

for the sauce:

• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 2 tsp curry powder (I like one that’s heavier on the coriander than the mustard)
• 2 cups of milk, warmed
• salt and pepper
• paprika

Hard boil the eggs and cool them completely (this may be easiest done a day ahead – not a problem if you’re using found Easter eggs). Peel them, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the yolks into a bowl.

Saute the mushrooms with a little butter or olive oil. Let them cool, then add them to the egg yolks.

Add the sour cream and dill, then salt and pepper to taste. Mash it all up thoroughly, and stuff the egg halves with the mixture (they will be very full). Lay the eggs out in a single layer in a baking dish (you could refrigerate them for a while at this point if you don’t have the curry sauce ready).

For the sauce, melt the butter in a heavy saucepan or double boiler. Add the flour and whisk it smooth. Let it cook, whisking, until it turns slightly golden. Add the curry powder and whisk it in, then add the warm milk. Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook, still stirring often, until it has thickened to a nice velvety sauce.

Pour the sauce over the eggs, sprinkle paprika over the top, and bake for 15 minutes at 375° until hot through.

Serve with English muffins, asparagus, roasted potatoes and lots of coffee.