Gratin

You've heard of potatoes au gratin, no? In French, a gratin is any dish that is baked in the oven then broiled so that the top forms a kind of a crust. Often, it is made with cheese that melts under the broiler, but not always.

Gratin de penne, champignons, et petits pois.

Making a gratin is a great way to use leftovers. You know that I made a lasagne last week. A few days later I ate penne pasta with the leftover meat sauce. Well, I had some penne left over, so on Thursday I made a gratin.

For my gratin, I started with a bécahmel sauce. It begins with a roux of flour cooked in melted butter. Then you gradually add milk and stir, and that makes the basic French white sauce called béchamel. I added salt and pepper and a bit of grated nutmeg. Yum!

Next, I added some grated cheese to the béchamel. I used cantal. At that point the sauce became a mornay. Well, almost. A classic mornay also includes egg yolk, but I didn't add any. My sauce was a cross between a béchamel and a mornay. No matter.

Then I combined the leftover cooked pasta and the sauce. I mixed in about a cup of cooked peas and about the same amount of sautéed mushrooms. Then I put the whole mixture into a gratin dish, topped it with some more grated cheese and some breadcrumbs, and slipped it into a moderate oven for about forty minutes.

The result was a gooey, tasty pasta dish with a crunchy crust on top. It's very much like a lasagne, like the one I made last week, but without tomato sauce or meat. And it's a very versatile dish. You can use whatever you have around, including many leftovers, to make a successful gratin. So go ahead and do one yourself and send me photos and recipes!