Lasagna

[Sylvus]

I love lasagna and recently set out to make it, from scratch (well, not the noodles), for the first time.

This is the recipe that I used, and it was quite possibly the best lasagna I have ever tasted:

Ingredients
1 pound of sweet Italian sausage
1 pound of ground beef
1/2 cup of chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 (28 ounce) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (8 ounce) cans of tomato sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato paste
1/2 Cup of Water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seed
2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped
4 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
23 ounces of ricotta cheese.
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 egg
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Start with the following in a pot.
1 pound of sweet Italian sausage
1 pound of ground beef
1/2 cup of chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped

Brown the ground beef, Italian sausage, onions and garlic in a pot. It takes about 6 to 9 minutes to brown the meat. I like to use a Dutch oven to cook this portion of the recipe. I use a medium low temperature to brown the meat. It is optional to remove the grease from the meat once it is finished browning, your choice.

2. Add the following:
1 (28 ounce) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (8 ounce) cans of tomato sauce
2 (6 ounce) cans of tomato paste
1/2 cup of water

Gently stir this into the cooking meat.

3. Add the following:
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seed
2 teaspoons fresh Basil leaves chopped
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Gently stir these seasoning into the sauce.
Cover the pot and let the meat sauce simmer. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes

4. Soak 12 lasagna noodles.
The lasagna noodles need to be soaked in hot tap water for 15 minutes.

5. While the noodles are soaking you can make the cheese filling.
Put the following in a mixing bowl:
23 ounces of ricotta cheese.
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
Grate fresh nutmeg over the Ricotta cheese.

6. Add the following
1 egg
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
Mix these ingredients together with a spoon

7. Now we start building the lasagna layers.
Use a 9×13 inch baking pan.
Spread 2 Cups of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
Remove your lasagna noodles out of the water bath. Shake water off wet noodles.
Lay 6 noodles across the layer of sauce.
Spread half of the ricotta cheese mixture over the layer of noodles.
Spread 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta layer.
S prinkle half of the Parmesan cheese over the mozzarella layer
Spread 2 cups of meat sauce over the cheese layer
Lay down the next layer of noodles
Spread the remaining ricotta mixture over noodles
Spread the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses saving some cheese for the top of the lasagna
Put the last layer of meat sauce on the cheeses
S prinkle the remaining cheese on top.

8. Cover with foil
Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 30 minutes
Remove foil and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for approximately 15 minutes.
–Serves 12 people, or a guy and his girlfriend one meal and the guy eating leftover lasagna every meal for like 4 days–

[Lalanae]

I don't know why, but the vision of you grating fresh nutmeg makes me giggle.

I've been considering trying some recipes for homemade tomato sauces and that one sounds really good.

When I make lasagna, I sometimes add slices of pepperoni between the layers. I'll bake them for a few minutes first and let them drain on paper towel though, because the grease factor can be pretty bad otherwise.

[Sueven]

My current favorite tomato sauce recipe:

Chop up some garlic and shallot and saute in butter or oil or whatever you like to saute things in.
Add chopped mushrooms. If you want more vegetables, add them too, I often do broccoli.
If you want to make it a meat sauce, add your meat to brown it a bit.
Add two cans of diced tomatoes, bring to a simmer.
Uncork a bottle of Cabernet and pour it in until you think you've poured in enough.
If you're not using meat, now is a good time to add a package of soy crumbles or something similar.
Spice with some sort of Italian seasoning blend, garlic powder, and salt. Add fresh herbs if you've got them, it helps.
Cook until it seems done. Adjust the spicing and the tomato/wine ratio to your taste.

[Ransure]

I found this lasagna recipe online about a year ago... and I can verify that it rocks. I have been making the tomato sauce and freezing it about once a month right now.

I am interested in learning how to make more good sauces.

[Sabek]

Trying to make this tonight gluten-free.
Pretty much the same recipe with rice flour based noodles instead of wheat.
Not sure about the final product yet, but the meat-sauce is hella good.

[Sabek]

This recipe is the win.
Next time I will need to let the meat sauce reduce a bit more than I did.
Sylvus said to let it go at least 90 minutes, and I took it off at around 70.

[Aslanna]

I read this and got scared:

23 ounces of ricotta cheese.
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

!

[Sylvus]

It feeds like 12 people though... that's less than half a cup of cheese per person!

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Why go with Ricotta over a bechamel though? Bechamels are soooooooooooooooo yummy - and easy!

[Sylvus]

I don't even know what that word means, I don't speak Swedish!

(I was just learning how to cook, and found this recipe online. I might be interested in swapping something out, if it'll work)

Also: is anyone out there skilled enough to take this basic recipe and turn it vegetarian, while still keeping it tasty? I realize that one of the best parts of this is the italian sausage, but my fiancée was interested in me making a vegetarian version of this.

[Sylvus]

So I went searching a couple sites for Bechamel, and I was like "man, this sure would be easier if there was like a wikipedia for recipes... HOLD ON A SECOND! Recipedia!!! THERE'S MY MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!"

Someone already has it and it is so not living up to its potential.

Oh well, back to the salt mines...

[Canelek]

You can make her some man-size manicotti instead!

[Sylvus]

You can make her some man-size manicotti instead!

Burgess Meredith in Grumpy Old Men is one of the great characters of the silver screen...

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Rough Sauce Bechamel recipe (from memory):

~ 3 tablespoons butter
~ 2 tablespoons flour (all-purpose, not the weird self-raising stuff you guys have)
~ 2 cups of milk
salt
pepper
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Melt butter on low heat in a saucepan. Add flour slowly (you can use a sieve to s.prinkle it in finely), stirring VIGOROUSLY!!1!. Keep it on the low heat for 5 minutes or so while stirring - this sorta bakes the flour and gets rid of the floury taste. When you have a cohesive, yellow-gold paste, slowly add the milk - still stirring like crazy. When you've added all of your milk, increase the heat a bit while - yes, you guessed it - still stirring. When you've got it up to a boil, add your s+p and your nutmeg (lovely nutmeg, girl don't make me beg, I wanna nog your egg). Keep stirring as it boils gently away, around 5-7 minutes I'd say. You want a consistency that's smooth and somewhat runny - you don't want Bechamel Paste. So somewhere around the consistency of melted icecream.

You can add grated parmesan, fresh mozzarella, cheddar, whatever you want to this (and turn it into a Mornay sauce) - but it really works quite well on its own.

As for veggie lasagnas, you can make a tomato-eggplant sauce or a spinach sauce that works quite well as a sub for the bolognese. I've also had fish lasagna that was quite yummy!.