Lasagna
Josh and Fred are high fiving each other that I made Lasagna
for dinner. In our house, lasagna
is a serious treat. I tend to
stick to the protein with veggies on the side. But for some reason, maybe because we are having a day of
football, I opted for something a tad from the norm.
already made products which could be quite easy…but why be easy? If you are going to eat lasagna, you gotta do it right.
1/2 lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork
½ lb. sweet Italian sausage
2 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes
1 onion chopped
2 large carrots chopped
4 leeks, the white part only, chopped
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
½ cup red wine
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. oregano
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 lb. mozzarella
1 lb. ricotta
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 lb. lasanga noodles
In a large deep sauce pan, on a high heat, cover the bottom with olive oil. Add the onions,
leeks, carrots, red pepper flakes and 1 tsp. salt. Turn the heat down to medium and sauteé until the vegetables
are soft. About 10 minutes or
so. Take out the veggies and set aside in a bowl.
Now, add the pork, beef and sausage meat to the same pan and
brown. Keep using a wooden spoon
to break all the meat up while cooking. Once it is browned, take out ¾ of the meat and set aside in a bowl.
Pour the ¼ part of the vegetable mixture in to the bowl with ¾ of
the meat mixture. Also, add 1/2 of the mozzarella cut into tiny cubes. I used fresh
mozzarella and cubes was much easier than shaved.
Take the rest of the mozzarella and slice into thin pieces for later use.
Take ¾ of the vegetable mixture and add to the ¼ of the meat
mixture in the sauteé pan. Add the
2 cans of tomatoes, red wine and the rest of salt, cumin, cinnamon and oregano.
Bring this mixture to boil and then down to simmer for about an hour. The mixture should get thick over the
hour and should have very little liquid when done.
In another bowl, mix together the ricotta, the parm and the
2 eggs. I left the cheese mixture and the mozz slices in the refrigerator while the sauce thickened.
Preheat oven to 350.
When the tomato sauce is done, get the noodles ready. I used fresh noodles and boiled them
for about 2 minutes to prepare for the lasagna. Follow whatever the directions say for the noodles you bought. There are even noodles that you don't have to cook.
Take a 9 X 13 deep baking dish and cover the bottom with the
tomato sauce. Using a tin from the grocery store that you can toss afterward is not a bad idea either. Then put a layer of pasta noodles over the sauce. Over the
noodles put about 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 1/3 of the meat mixture and about
1/3 of the tomato sauce. Repeat the process starting with the noodles. Once that is
done, twice, take what is left of the meat mixture, tomato sauce and cheese
mixture and mix it all together.
Pour it over the last layer of pasta. At this point, I put another layer of pasta over that and
nothing else. Bake for an hour
with tin foil lightly covering it.
When it is done, take the remaining pieces of mozzarella and put it over
the top and then put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
Serve. A huge hit. Seriously yummy.
Serve.