Lapshevnik (Noodle casserole)

Ingredients

• Noodle products from durum wheat - 200 g
• 9-18 % - fat curd (preferably with a homogeneous structure, moderate humidity, not dry) - 480-490 g
• medium-size or big eggs - 3 pcs.
• sugar - 95 g
• vanilla sugar - 1/2 tsp.
• salt – a small pinch
• 18-20 % - fat sour cream - 230 g (for the mixture) + about 150 g (for topping) + for serving (optionally)
• dried apricots - 85-90 g
• pitted dried prunes - 105-110 g

Preparation method (receipt)

Preheat the oven to 155-165 °C or in accordance with the recommendations given in your oven instructions for baking noodle-based casseroles. Pour 2-2.5 liters of cold (preferably filtered) water into a saucepan and start heating. Wash dried fruits with warm water and rinse with cold (preferably filtered) water, dry on a paper towel and cut into large pieces. Pour noodle products into the boiling water (if using long spaghetti, they must first be broken into 3 parts) and, stirring constantly with a slotted spoon so that they do not stick together, bring the water to the boil again (you can cook it under a high heat). Then slack the fire and, without covering the pan, cook the noodles, stirring occasionally, from 3 to 5 minutes depending on their thickness. After that, turn off the fire, cover the pan with a lid and leave noodles in the water until serving (the noodles will swell and slightly increase in volume). If you use "capellini" or "spaghettini", do not keep them long in water. While noodles are being cooked, put curd, eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and sour cream (for the mixture) in a large bowl. Stir everything thoroughly with a mixer, using whisks for the yeast dough first and then usual ones (or use just usual whisks if the curd consistency enables that) until smooth. At the end of the mixing, whip the mass very intensively at high speed, to make it especially fluffy after baking. Stir noodles with a spoon and put in a colander, rinse with cold filtered water, let it drain completely (!), having placed the colander with the noodles on the saucepan in which they were cooked, and then add them to the curd-egg mixture. Add dried fruits as well. Thoroughly stir everything with a spoon, moving it first from top to bottom, and then circle-wise, so that the pasta (especially thin spaghetti) is evenly distributed in the mixture (in this case, the cut of the ready-to-serve lapshevnik will be more beautiful - as in the final photo). Grease the casserole dish (with an anti-stick coating Ø 26 cm) with butter and pour the semi-finished noodle casserole into it. Level the mixture with a spoon and top with sour cream (it is not necessary to coat the noodle with sour cream if the curd-egg mixture is liquid). Cover the casserole dish with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 155-165 °C or according to the recommendations given in your oven instructions for baking noodle-based casseroles, then remove the foil and hold the casserole in the oven for another 10-15 minutes (so that the whey is completely evaporated from its surface, and the top of the noodle casserole is covered with small cracks). It is important to keep watch over the temperature in the oven: lapshevnik is very sensitive in this regard and can take on a golden color to excess if the temperature is too high. Cover the casserole dish with a serving plate of the appropriate diameter and turn everything together, thus laying lapshevnik out on the plate. You can also put it on a plate without turning upside down. Then, if necessary, cut the burnt spots with a breadknife (with sawing movements). Bring the cooked lapshevnik to a warm state, cut into portions with a sharp knife and serve with sour cream.