Lasagna

This dish has wonderful smoky flavors and just a touch of sweetness. Using oven-ready lasagna noodles simplifies the preparation.

The combination of ricotta, Parmesan and goat cheese and porcini and shiitake mushrooms makes this classic dish new again. Offer red wine throughout dinner and Italian ice cream and cookies-gelato and biscotti-for dessert.

To complete the menu, serve seeded Italian breadsticks and a salad of radicchio and marinated artichoke hearts tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. Spumoni ice cream is a perfect ending.

In the recipe below it is not necessary to soak the pasta squares because they are not cut or rolled.

No-boil noodles cut down on the prep time.