Lasagne

Cafe Society
1

I can’t remember the last time I made lasagne. Either it’s provided like once a year at the office, or I just get it frozen, or Mrs. L.A. makes it. Without looking up a recipe, this is how I’d make it:

Brown a bunch of ground beef with plenty of garlic, some chopped onion, salt, and pepper. Pour in a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce and some sliced black olives, and simmer a while. Boil a package of lasagne noodles until they are al dente. Spray a 13x9 baking dish with Pam. Lay down a layer of noodles. Add some of the meat sauce. Add a mixture of ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, and nutmeg. Repeat twice, and top with noodles and shredded mozzarella. Cover, and bake at 375º for an hour, uncovering for the last 15 minutes.

OK, your complaints:
[ul][li]Prego? Prego? :eek: So sue me. I like it, and I don’t mind shortcuts for lasagne.[/li][li]You forgot the sausage! :mad: Mrs. L.A. makes hers with sausage. I actually like my lasagne beefy.[/li][li]Silly boy! You’re still boiling your noodles? How cute! :smiley: Mrs. L.A. uses dry noodles, and they cook nicely every time. But I’ve never tried it, so there ya go.[/li][li]Too many layers! :dubious: I’m flexible. I do tend to make large recipes, so I may as well use up all the sauce.[/ul][/li]And probably other complaints. Like, ‘What about ground pork?’

Anyway… Does anybody see anything really wrong with my ad hoc recipe? How would you improve it? (Note: I’ll probably use the Prego anyway.) Perhaps you would like to post your recipe? Who knows? I may try it!

2

Many, many years ago, I used to make a version called American lasagna that had Swiss cheese in it. I think it was from a Betty Crocker cookbook. It was actually quite good. So your ingredients sound fine to me, if not to purists.

3

That’s pretty much how I make it, except no nutmeg and I use whatever good tomato sauce I like-- usually marinara augmented with ground beef, extra seasoning, red wine, mushrooms, onions… whatever.

4

Just popped a ground chicken and jalapeno summer sausage lasagna in the oven. Standard tomato sauce using olive oil, onions, garlic, canned sauce, paste, chicken broth, savory, sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, lemon juice, pepper. Lots of whole milk ricotta, mozzarella, asiago.

Should be ready in 45 minutes. Yum.

5

I’d never use jarred sauce, not because I especially hate it or anything, but I just never have it around and I do typically have canned tomatoes around.

Here’s my base recipe:

1 package Barilla no-bake lasagna noodles (the short ones)
Simple red sauce (2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, red wine, basil, oregano, s&p, porcinis, blend to smooth)
1 recipe bechamel (2 T butter, 2 T flour, 1.25 cups whole milk, 1/2 cup creme fraiche or cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg)
About 6 oz mozzarella
2-3 oz Asiago
3 pints mushrooms, sautéed in butter
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 15 oz container whole milk ricotta

Mix red sauce and Bechamel together. Spray pan with nonstick. Make 4 layers in lasagna pan, starting with a cup of sauce, ending with noodles, sauce, Mozz/Asiago blend.

Cover with tinfoil, bake at 350 for 45 min, take tinfoil off, bake until top is brown.

The recipe gets greatly altered depending on mood and what’s on hand. I’ll throw spinach or kale in, or omit the mushrooms, or use spicy sausage, or use a mix of burger/veal/lamb, or Parmesan instead of asiago, or throw in some eggplant. Really, it’s a catch-all. Sometimes I make my own ricotta, or don’t use porcinis in the sauce.

But yeah, that’s my recipe.

6

The one change I would suggest to your recipe is to put a little bit of sauce in first before the first noodle layer.

And I’m probably a Philistine, but I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta.

Now, my recipe, I add a bunch of other stuff to as well. I basically started from the premise of “well, the noodles come in a one-pound box, might as well use them all”, and then scaled everything else up to match.

7

I have to side with Mrs LA on the ground beef vs sausage issue.

I also like some chopped green bell peppers in the mix. Probably because that was in the lasagna I ate as a kid.

If I’m feeling real fancy, I’ll add a layer of chopped spinach.

8

To me, Prego is just way too sweet for lasagne. I understand wanting a jarred sauce–nuthin’ wrong with that, but maybe try Classico (the “Fresh Basil” style possibly)–very similar, just less sweet (which to me works better with the ricotta).

And a small layer of sauce between the pan and the first layer of noodles. Other than that, sounds good.

9

As usual, Athena is right. Italian sausage is MUCH better than ground beef in this.

And three layers of pasta is plenty, in my opinion.

10

Better you stay out of the kitchen and lets Mrs L.A. make the lasagne. Italian sausage with ground beef. And ditch the ricotta. Mozz, jack and fresh grated parm. And a bottle of a nice dry red wine. Garlic bread, real garlic, minced, and don’t skimp on the butter.

I be getting hungry!

11

If your lasagna doesn’t taste like the lasagna served at Buca di Beppo’s, (http://www.bucadibeppo.com/) it’s not lasagna, it’s just noodles and meat. Seriously. If you ever get the chance to try this lasagna, do it.

My daughter has the recipe and it takes her forever to make it, let alone shop for the ingredients.

12

I take my lasagne pretty seriously. I make it about twice a year and I make a lot when I do because it’s a bit of a project.

I like a meaty sauce, I also like ricotta cheese (some people like bechamel they are nuts.) but my whole dish is built around the sauce so we will get to that last.

I use regular lasagna noodles not no boil. No boil always have a weird texture. I soak them in hot tap water until they are bendy but not soft. Works perfectly.

Ricotta cheese gets a beaten egg, a pinch of salt, a pinch of nutmeg and fresh chopped parsley.

I layer generously with mozzarella that I shred myself. The top layer also gets parm mixed in with the moz and more parsley and some oregano.
The sauce recipe is a bit lose. I add a bit and change it a bit every time. Taste as you go. Below is what is essential.

For the sauce you need half a pound of hot and half a pound of sweet Italian sausage. You also need a full pound of ground beef, 80% lean. Take a whole diced onion and one large carrot grated and sweat with olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add oregano, fennel seeds, crushed red pepper 5 cloves of garlic crushed and minced, salt and pepper and cook for a minute. Add the meat and cook it until browned. Add 2 large cans of whole tomatoes that you crush, or (of you are feeling a little lazy) get pre crushed. Add 4oz of tomato paste. And a cup of red wine (or more, I have been getting close to a half bottle in recent cooking). The secret to the sauce is this next bit. Add less than a quarter tsp of cinnamon and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Cook for many hours. You want this to reduce by a fair bit and for the alcohol to cook out. You can get a really good sauce by just bringing to a boil and letting it cool and sit overnight but it’s better if you can let it cook uncovered on the stove for a very long time and reduce. Adjust the seasoning after it has been boiling for a few hours. Add several leaves of fresh basil chopped fine.

Layer sauce on the bottom of the pan. Then noodles. Then ricotta then sauce then moz. Then make the next layer. Make as many layers as fit in your dish. Mine makes 3. Bake until cheese is brown and bubbly at 375. Let cool at least 15 minutes. Freeze whatever you won’t eat within 3 days.

13

That is almost exactly my quick throw together lasagna recipe. I don’t use black olives or nutmeg, but do add oregano, sweet basil and parsley (dried is fine for this recipe). I’ll also likely add a bit of red pepper flakes, and if I have it some sliced provolone on the top layer. Other than that, this is what I throw together for a quick meal that I know everyone in the house will like.

14

I was going to mention red pepper flakes, but decided not to unless someone else did. :wink:

15

Ah, yes. Three cheeses. Ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan. With an egg or two, all mixed together. Then maybe some extra parm on the top.

Lasagna should be the “whatever” dish. You’ve got your basic ingredients that form the base, and then you add whatever you have. Best to add it to the sauce, so it’s easier to spread around.

16

There’s really no “wrong” way to make lasagna by my book, but I like it fairly simple: ground beef bolognese and bechamel. No sausage or anything like that. Parmesan for the cheese. Three meat layers and two bechamel. (This is my go-to lasagna recipe since I discovered it about a decade ago.)

But I’ve made it with sausage, with ricotta, with a variety of cheeses, with Tex-Mex inspired ingredients, all that stuff. It’s a flexible dish with room for lots of creativity and can be as labor intensive or throw-together-at-the-last-minute as you want it to be. I can’t do the Prego, though, if I’m making it for myself. As mentioned above, it’s just too sweet for my tastes. (And I don’t care if I come off as a snob on this issue–it’s just my tastes–but the only jarred pasta sauce I’ve found that I like is Rao’s, and that’s expensive as shit. They are all just too sweet and overspiced up for my tastes. I prefer my tomato sauces fairly plain.)

17

Lasagna is one of my ‘kitchen sink’ recipes where I add a lot of whatever I have on hand. I start by making a basic marinara sauce, mix ricotta with Parmesan and parsley, and mozzarella. Then I add sausage, mushrooms, olives, and whatever else I have in the fridge that looks good. It never tastes the same twice.

18

Am I the only one who doesn’t add egg? In fact, I never even realized that one was expected to add egg-- It just seems out of place, to me.

19

I personally do not add egg, but I don’t make the ricotta version all that often.

20

This, especially the bolded part. I have yet to find any dish that ricotta adds anything to, aside from an unpleasant texture. (And I may be a Philistine, too, but I’ve used added medium cheddar to my lasagna mix, to good reviews.)

I can skip the dry red–just not a fan. I’d rather have sweet iced tea. Provides a nice contrast, and is the best possible thing to drink with garlic bread. I can make a meal of garlic bread and sweet tea.