Lasagna
Lasagna is one of my favorite comfort foods but it can take an awfully long time to make. It’s definitely a weekend meal because from start to finish, it usually takes about 4 hours to prepare. To speed things up you can make the sauce a day ahead to cut the prep and cook time down to an hour, so that’s doable for a weeknight meal. I can never get it to cut as cleanly as some of the pictures I’ve seen with the perfect wavy edges and distinct ricotta and sauce layers. The cheese and sauce just seem to melt and mix together whenever I make it but that’s fine with me since everything mixes in your tummy anyway. 
Notes:
- If you are using boil lasagna noodles, cook them about 2 minutes short of al dente.
- One possible way to avoid the sauce mixing with the cheese is to make one layer entirely ricotta and mozzerella and another layer all sauce and keep them separate with the noodles. So it would look something like this:
1 1/2 C mozzerella
2 C of meat sauce
Noodle layer 3
All of the ricotta + 2 1/2 C mozzerella
Noodle layer 2
2 1/2 C meat sauce sauce
Noodle layer 1
1/4 C sauce
I haven’t tried this yet because I’m a creature of habit and I keep layering my lasagnas the way I do.
- You can freeze unbaked lasagna, first wrap it tightly with plastic wrap then wrap with foil. Defrost a day or two in advance, remove the plastic wrap, and then cover back up with foil. Bake for 5 minutes longer than the specified time.
Hearty Meaty Lasagna
Meat sauce, full recipe
9 no-boil lasagna noodles
1 lb shredded mozzarella, about 4 cups
15 oz. ricotta, about 1 3/4 C
2 oz. parmesan, about 1 C
1/2 C chopped fresh basil leaves
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
In a bowl, lightly beat the egg, then mix in the ricotta, 3/4 C of the parmesan, basil, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
Ladle about 1/4 C of the meat sauce, avoiding large chunks of meat into a 9 x 13 baking pan and cover the bottom. Lay 3 noodles in the dish. Then spread half of the ricotta mixture by dropping spoonfuls on each noodle. Spread it out on each noodle with the back of a spoon. Then evenly cover the ricotta with 1 1/3 C of the shredded mozzarella. Then evenly cover the mozzarella with 1 1/2 C of the meat sauce (no more than a third of the total meat sauce). Finally cover the sauce with another layer of 3 noodles.
Repeat the ricotta – cheese – sauce – noodle layering for the second layer.
For the top layer, cover the noodle with another 1 - 1 1/2 C of the sauce. Toss the remaining 1 1/3 C of mozzarella with the remaining 1/4 C of parmesan. Spread the cheese over the top of the lasagna.
The lasagna will look like this:
Rest of mozzarella 1 1/3 C + rest of parmesan 1/4 C
1 – 1 1/2 C meat sauce
Noodle Layer 3
1 1/2 C of meat sauce
1 1/3 Mozzerella
Rest of ricotta mixture
Noodle layer 2
1 1/2 C meat sauce
1 1/3 C mozzerella
1/2 of ricotta mixture
Noodle layer 1
1/4 C sauce, no meat
Spray a piece of aluminum foil with nonstick spray and cover the baking dish. Bake at 375ºF covered for 15 minutes. Remove the foil then bake another 25 minutes until the lasagna is bubbly and the cheese is spotty brown. Steven likes the cheese really brown so I baked the full 40 minutes uncovered. Cool 10 minutes and serve.
Serves 6 – 8.
This will be my entry for Presto Pasta Night #15. Check out the roundup on Ruth's blog Once Upon a Feast this Friday.
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9 comments:
I thought Lasagna is Garfield's comfy food ;p
Maybe I can try this and add beer to the meaty sauce instead of red wine.
I add sauted spinach into the sauce and sub cottage cheese for the ricotta. :)
Have you tried Francesco Rinaldi? That's my favorite cheap sauce. I get it when Albertson's has their $1 sales. It tastes much fresher than Hunt's.
Your lasagna is perfect, Amy!!
I bet Joey Tribbiani would eat the whole thing in a matter of seconds. :)
I haven't had lasagna in ages ... might be time!
My fiancee loves lasagna. I'm a big fan, too, but can never eat too much... Yours look wonderful.
Lasagna is one of my favorite comfort foods too... gosh, it's been ages since I had my Mom's lasagna, now I think I've been hit by a craving (and not a little bit of homesickness.) Beautiful lasagna and you know, I once read a book on food photography and they get those perfect photos by adding things like glue to the dish. Blech! But I've found that simply slicing the dish while cold produces a pretty good looking, clean slice too.... assuming you don't want all that delicious gooey cheese oozing out. Yum!
Ari (Baking and Books)
Tigerfish,
Hehe that's true, he does love lasagna. Beer would probably work too, like your B-B-B. :D
WC,
Yeah lots of people add spinach to the ricotta, I'll have to try that next time. And thanks so much for the pasta sauce suggestion. Hunt's is pretty crummy. I don't think I'll be able to get it for $1 though since the more expensive grocery stores sell that brand here. :(
Patricia,
You're so sweet. :) And lol Joey would eat anything. *remembers the cheesecake episode*
Cate,
It's been a while since my last lasagna too. :D
Anh,
Aw thank you. I can only eat a piece but Steven can eat twice as much as me. :P lol
Ari,
Yeah I heard about that, some of the tips are fascinating if not gross and weird. :P I still want to be able to eat my food after I take a picture of it. :P I'll try to cut it cold next time, that sounds like it will help.
Your lasagna is picture perfect. Thanks so much for sharing with Presto Pasta Nights. One can never have too many versions of it.
Ruth,
Aw thanks so much for the kind words.
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