Our stay here is winding down and we’re doing those things we’ve been meaning to do for a while. Like ordering a lasagna from the homemade pasta place down the street. Over 60% of Argentines have Italian heritage (immigration to here was huge in the 1800s and through/after World War II), and Italian food (pastas, pizzas) are second only to BEEF in consumption.
So there are a lot of homemade pasta places. My favorite (so far) are sorrentinos (round and tall raviolis) filled with riccota, ham and walnuts. Mmmmmm. We’d been curious about lasagna, which was on the list but never on the shelf. Took us a little while to figure out that you have to give them 24 hrs notice (1st visit) and that you have to bring your own pan (2nd visit). So by visit #3 we finally ordered: one lasagna, with meat and vegetables. Visions of ooey, gooey mozzarella. Mmmmmm. We picked it up with much anticipation, especially considering it weighed 3.15 kilos (almost 7 pounds!) and, at 18 pesos/kilo, was a whopping 56 pesos (over $18 dollars!).
Reviews: Thumbs down. From a sample of one, we conclude that Argentine lasagna is lousy. It had no tomato sauce and no mozzarella cheese. The pasta layers themselves were wonderful (delicate, tender, numerous), but it was too much of a bland green/white filling (spinach, chard, ricotta), and a little bit of ground beef and ham, and none of the red/melty filling. Disappointment. The next day (it took us 3 days to finish the behemoth) we doctored it up with our own tomatoes and cheese. Vast improvement.
From now on I’ll stick with the sorrentinos. Mmmmmm.
diana maps 