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When you want to show a visiting out-of-towner what the preferred delicacy of the discriminating Mound City-ite is, you steer them to any of the 5,000 restaurants in the area that serves our beloved toasted ravioli.
Chef John Johnson, the creative chap in charge at River City Casino & Hotel, has taken the whole fried-Italian-food thing to an even crazier place. It is a place that requires a sense of humor, Rolaids, and a knife and fork.
Toasted lasagna is one of the new items on the spring menu at the casino’s Beerhouse. Johnson makes a lasagna and pushes down on it to compress it and make it more dense. He cools it in the fridge, and then slices the congealed brick of pasta into huge, foot-long, half-inch-thick planks. The planks are breaded and fried, and served with a hearty green garnish of sautéed spinach, basil, garlic, and onion, plus marinara sauce and a dusting of grated Parm.
You can watch a cool video of the chef making the dish here.
T-Ravs are usually considered an appetizer, but if fried lasagna is your appetizer, you might be one of the giants of Jotunheim. As an app, it might be shared amongst a group of four or more. As an entree, it’s as filling as they come.
Johnson is no stranger to fried madness. In another tribute to the blue-collar grub that built this city, he’s re-introduced the fried-brain sandwich.
For his next trick, may we suggest those fried lasagna planks (below) be bent into the catenary curve of the Arch and somehow stood up on the plate? Or perhaps Johnson might fry up an arancini the size of home plate? Fun stuff.
Toasted Lasagna
$12
The Beerhouse
River City Casino & Hotel
777 River City Casino Blvd.
314-388-7655
Photo by Byron Kerman
