Sunday, November 10, 2013

Lasagne

Disclaimer: This is not one of my "look just follow the picture directions and you'll whip this up in no time" recipes. This is a "oh look it's going to rain all day today and we need to have the oven on to keep warm" recipes. It's not hard, but it is complicated. Because it's complicated, I'm not going to have my usual amount of pictures detailing each step. So here we go.

Lasagne

This recipe makes one 9 x 5 loaf pan. You can double it if you want to fill a 9 x 13 pan for a pot luck. There aren't many quantities, because there seriously isn't much of a recipe for this. I've given you approximate measures.


Flour
3 eggs
Garlic salt
Pepper
Minced onioin
Minced garlic
1 container of grated parmesan cheese.
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella
1 15oz container of ricotta
1 to 1-1/2 cups milk
1 medium jar of spaghetti sauce, flavor of your choice
2-3 Tbl butter
Recipe of homemade noodles or 4-5 no-cook noodles, or 4-5 cooked regular lasagne noodles

You will make each of 4 components, set them aside, and then assemble the whole lasagne: noodles, parmesan sauce, ricotta filling, and spaghetti sauce.

 Make one recipe of Homemade Noodles in the sidebar at the right. You can also use the no-cook lasagne noodles (saves water, propane, and time), or regular cook lasagne noodles. If making them from scratch (worth it), cut the dough into four balls and roll them into long rectangles that are just slightly smaller than the pan. Boil 2 of them at a time for just a few minutes. They don't take long to cook.






Make the parmesan sauce:
Take 2 Tbl of butter and melt it in a small saucepan. Add 3-4 Tbl finely minced onions and a tsp or two of minced garlic (I use the pre-minced in olive oil in the jar). Saute until the onion is clear. Add just enough flour to make a thick paste. It will be about 4 Tbl, but I don't measure. I just keep adding it and stirring until it's thick. Next, add enough milk slowly, while stirring with a wire whisk over medium heat, to make a medium thick white sauce. Add enough grated parmesan cheese to make a thick sauce, somewhere around a cup. If you like a lot of parmesan, add some more. Set aside.


Make the ricotta filling:
Take a 15 ounce container of whole milk ricotta cheese and put it in a bowl with one egg, 1-1/2 tsp garlic salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella. Mix it well. Set aside.







To assemble, pour enough spaghetti sauce (yes from a jar or make your own if you wish) on the bottom of the pan to cover it.











Add one of the noodles, or enough of the no-cook noodles to cover the bottom.












Next, spread some of the parmesan sauce over the noodles.















Next, spread some of the ricotta filling over, using about a third of it. Sprinkle it with mozzarella. Repeat the layers.








Repeat the layers again, ending with a noodle , parmesan sauce, and mozzarella only on the top layer. Use a lot of mozzarella on the top.


 Bake at 375° for 45-60 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crispy along the edges. Let it stand and cool for a bit before serving or it will be too runny. Do not skip this step or you'll waste your whole effort This recipe is particularly good if you make it the day before, cook it half way, then finish cooking it the rest of the way the day you're serving it.





Tips: Put the loaf pan on a foil-covered cookie sheet because it will spill over and it will save you cleaning the oven.  Also watch it while it bakes and cover it loosely with foil if starts to brown too fast or too much. This is a meatless version, but you can add ground beef, ground sausage, or whatever other meat you want to the spaghetti sauce.

Serve it with warm bread and salad.

1 comment:

  1. Deb, It's 9:45am and I am now dreaming of this lasagne. One day I watched Guy Confetti make a lasagne with peperoni and Italian Sausage. I tried it that night, delicious. I'm trying yours soon.

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