FROM NOW until the new year, there is a temptation to work a little harder in the kitchen than you normally do, to knock yourself out.

One way to cope with this surge of feelings is to stretch out on the sofa, put a cold washcloth on your forehead, and wait for the sensation to pass.

Perhaps that is what I should have done the other day when I considered making the leek-and-shrimp lasagna.

Instead, I succumbed to the impulse to make something rich and elegant that would be a delicious holiday dish. The leek-and-shrimp lasagna turned out to be all of those things. It was also more work than I had anticipated. The required tasks were not difficult, with the possible exception of slicing cooked shrimp in half lengthwise without eating them. But there were plenty of chores to do.

For starters, I made the mistake of glancing at the recipe rather than reading it through. This meant that when I was deep in the cooking process, with pots out and fires blazing, I would come to the realization that I had to stop and make a detour - to make the white sauce, to chop the leeks and to zest a lemon - before I could proceed.

These were what I call "sous-chef moments," times you wish you had a sous-chef or some other skilled kitchen staff member you could turn to and say, "Chop those leeks." Alas, there were no knife-wielding minions in the kitchen, so I tuned the television to a college football game, and started chopping, stirring and peeling.

I surprised myself both with my tenacity and with the amount of mess I created. During the first half of the football game, I made a pretty good white sauce, about 4 cups worth, a process that resulted in a very large, very dirty pot being deposited in the sink.

Next I washed and chopped the leeks - odd vegetables that look like fat green onions - then cooked them twice, first sauteed in butter, then roasted in the oven with lemon juice and lemon zest. That added two more dirty pots to the pile.

Then I steamed the shrimp. The recipe from Nancy Verde Barr's book, Make It Italian (Knopf, 2002, $29.95), called for 3/4 pound of shrimp, but I steamed twice that amount. Having extra cooked shrimp sitting in the fridge is never a drawback. Had there been any dipping sauce handy, those extra shrimp would have never made it to the fridge. But after peeling and slicing about a dozen or so of them, I got more tired than hungry.

Thanks to using the ready-to-bake, no-boil lasagna noodles, assembling the lasagna was pretty easy. Barr's recipe attacks the problem of how to keep the shrimp from drying out by covering them in white sauce and several cheeses. Barr called for three cheeses - parmesan, mozzarella and ricotta - but I skipped the ricotta, mainly because there was none in our fridge. The lasagna was still moist and flavorful, but a little short of sauce, without it.

I liked the dish. The richness of the cheese blended with the shrimp and was topped by citrus notes from the lemon-flavored leeks. My wife ended up washing all the dirty pots. Nevertheless, she was crazy about the shrimp lasagna and wants me to make it again.

I probably will, but only when that urge to hunker down in the kitchen overwhelms me. In other words, I will probably make it during the holidays.

Leek-and-Shrimp Lasagna

Serves 6 to 8

4 1/4 cups warm white sauce (see recipe below)

4 braised leeks and 2 braised onions (see recipe below)

1/2 pound ready-to-bake lasagna noodles

2 cups whole-milk ricotta beaten with 1 egg and 1 teaspoon fresh thyme

3/4 pound medium shrimp, cooked, peeled, cut in half lengthwise

1/2 cup torn basil leaves, plus 8 to 10 whole leaves for garnish

2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 pound mozzarella or scamorza cheese, freshly grated

black pepper to taste

To make the lasagna:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9-inch-by-13-inch-by- 2-inch baking pan. Spread 1 cup of white sauce on the bottom of the pan. Cover the sauce with layer of lasagna noodles, and smooth ricotta on top of the noodles.

Scatter half of the shrimp, the leeks and onions, the torn basil and a third of the parmesan and mozzarella over the pasta. Season with pepper, add another cup of white sauce, another layer of noodles and the remaining shrimp, leeks, onions, ricotta and basil, but sprinkle on only about half of the remaining mozzarella and parmesan.

Drizzle another cup of white sauce, cover with noodles and spread any remaining white sauce on the top. Scatter the last of the cheese and the whole basil leaves on the top.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until noodles are tender and top is lightly browned. Let rest 10 minutes before cutting.

-- From "Make It Italian: The Taste and Technique of Italian Home Cooking" by Nancy Verde Barr (Knopf, 2002, $30)

White Sauce

Makes 4 1/2 cups

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup flour

4 1/2 cups milk, heated

2 or 3 gratings of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Take pan off the heat and sprinkle the flour on the melted butter, whisking constantly until you have a smooth paste.

Return pan to the heat and cook 6 minutes on low, whisking often to cook away raw-flour taste. Do not allow the paste to color.

Remove pan from heat again. Slowly pour in heated milk, whisking well to create a smooth sauce. Return pan to heat and bring the sauce to a boil. It will thicken quickly. Stir in nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Turn the heat to low and cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking on bottom. Sauce can be used immediately, cooled and refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 3 months.

Braised Leeks and Onions

4 large leeks

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 large onions, cut in half, then into half-rounds

salt to taste

1 lemon, juice and zest

Slice off green tops and root ends of leeks. Make a long slice through the white bulb, from the top almost to the root, and hold under cold running water, gently spreading leaves to wash away any sand. Finish the cut to the end, then slice the leeks into half-rounds about 1/8 inch thick.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and stir in the leeks and onions. Season with salt and cook slowly over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until vegetables are golden, about 6 minutes. Don't allow onions to brown.

Add the zest and juice of the lemon, cover the pan (if pan is not oven-proof, transfer vegetables to oven-safe vessel) and braise in a 350-degree oven until vegetables are tender and liquid has evaporated, about 10 to 15 minutes.