Lasghetti

It's always a nice surprise to open the fridge and find everything for a recipe I want to make.  This was a really fun creation for me and one I'll be experimenting with sometime soon.

I made my own pasta sauce with a can of crushed tomatoes, oregano, red chili pepper flakes, olives, and sundried tomato bits.  I cooked this down and then added 1 pound of cooked ground turkey.  I also had some cooked chicken hanging around so I cubed it up really tiny and threw that in the sauce as well.

I made a filling with 1 1/2 cups of ricotta and some defrosted (and well-drained) spinach, seasoned with salt and pepper.

The reason this is called LAsghetti is because I didn't have enough lasagna sheets so I cooked some thick spaghetti noodles and used those for the bottom layer.  I suppose this is a cross between baked spaghetti and lasagna...but "lasghetti" sounds so much cooler.

To assemble, lightly oil the bottom of a Pyrex dish.  This will help the noodles crisp up on the bottom - yum! The add 1/2 of the meat sauce, 1 layer of lasagna noodles, all the ricotta mix, another layer of noodles, and the rest of the meat. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

I've started foregoing the cheese in my lasagna - I don't really miss it, either - but if you want some gooey goodness, you can add 1/2 cup Parmesan to the ricotta mixture and top the whole thing with fresh mozzarella.

The Real Lasagna...with Bechemel

Every year I tweak my lasagna recipe. A few things that never change: if using meat, I make sure it's turkey because it's lighter and absorbs flavor better than beef. I also like adding a veggie - vegetable lasagna is great, but even in my meat lasagna I add spinach. Cheeses: pecorino is great to finish off the cooking process, fresh grated mozzarella is better than pre-shredded moz (this gets really dry between shipping from the factory to the grocery store). Ricotta cheese is not a staple - I think you can definitely get away with just fresh mozzarella and maybe a bechemel sauce.

This recipe combines some of my favorite methods and ingredients.

1) Spice up a regular ole jar (actually a jar and a half to 2 jars) with garlic powder and pepper.

2) In a frying pan, sautee 1 onion that you've cut up really small along with 4 cloves of chopped garlic (use olive oil for this, it adds a great flavor). Add one pound of ground turkey and continue cooking until the onions are dark golden and the turkey is almost cooked through. Add this to the sauce and cook down for about 20 minutes.

3) Mix 1 medium sized container of ricotta cheese with 3 cups of cooked down, sauteed spinach. Season this mixture as well with salt and pepper.

4) Make the bechemel by melting 2-3 Tbs of butter in a saucepan. Add 3 Tbs flour and whisk together until they come together. Add 2 cups of milk and continue cooking until the mixture has thickened (medium high heat for about 10 minutes should do it). Add salt and pepper to taste - throw in a few red pepper flakes for good measure, too :)

5) To assemble, spray a 13x9 inch Pyrex with Pan or butter lightly, then add 2 ladles of the sauce, enough to coat the bottom. Put one layer of any non-cook lasagna layers over this, then another couple ladles of the meat sauce. You need to put the meat mixture above and below the first layer of lasagna so it has enough moisture to cook thoroughly. Over the meat mixture, add about 3/4 cup of the bechemel and another layer of pasta. Cover this with the ricotta cheese mixture, more pasta, meat sauce, a final layer of pasta, and the rest of the meat sauce. Over the top, pour the rest of the bechemel sauce and enough mozzarella cheese to cover the top. Cover the top with aluminum foil and cook for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Take the aluminum off, raise the temperature to 400 degrees and let the cheese brown - another 10 minutes.

The key here is to season as you go - by assuring each layer tastes right, you eliminate the need to alter proportions at the end.

Ricotta-less Lasagna

A lovely person recently told me my posts have been lacking "substance" so here's a lengthy post with step-by-step directions on how to make a hearty lasagna on a dime. I don't really like ricotta in my lasagna - I LOOOOVE ricotta in general. For tangential reasons, may I suggest topping some with a little raspberry jam or maple syrup and eating it as a lovely snack?

Anyway, in Italy I learned to make lasagna layering bechemel and tomato sauce, so here's my version of that procedure using ingredients I happened to have on hand. The results were amazing and I am quite proud of my handy work :)

What You Need:

1 box Barilla lasagna sheet noodles - not the one with ruffly edges, the flat ones

2 jars pasta sauce -I used vodka sauce and a garlic/olive oil sauce

5 cloves minced garlic

1 large can black olives, sliced

pepper, salt, garlic powder to taste

Make the Sauce (s):

Heat the sauces and add the garlic and spices. You can add some oregano if you want, too, but sometimes that overpowers the dish.

I had some leftover Gorgonzola bechemel sauce, so I decided to us that for my lasagna, but if you don't have any, just whip up a batch. See any one of my Mac and Cheese posts for a recipe.

Layer the Lasagna:

Start with a nice covering of sauce a the bottom of a Pyrex dish

Put on a layer of noddles

Cover noodles with more sauce and a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese

More noodles

Sauce, then I added some cooked and drained spinach and the bechemel

Noodles

Sauce and mozzarella cheese

Continue this procedure until you are done with the noodles

Add one final layer of sauce and a healthy covering of mozzarella and pecorino if you have some

Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven

Uncover it and bake an additional 10 minutes so the cheese browns

If you want, you can poke through with a knife to make sure the noodles are totally cooked, but the great thing about using these noodles is no pre-boiling!!!! The spinach is a great addition if you don't have meat, like me. But you could add some ground turkey or chicken or beef to the pasta sauce and nix the spinach - I wouldn't do both because then one of them will be jealous of the other. Another thing: I really like is how this lasagna falls when you slice it - in my opinion, food should not be so stiff that it stands on its own. No thanks.

And there you have it, a delicious, healthy meal to last you a week. I actually froze a few pieces for a rainy day. But this is also a great thing to make and feed a few good friends.