Me and Lasagna

So darn good to eat

I decided that it was time to cook something and get my mind on food, which I love and missed doing on a regular basis. A few days ago I gathered the ingredients to make some lasagna. This is about the steps I took to make and improve upon an existing recipe. The goal was to make this dish tasty by adding flavors and not skipping quality. With this cooking adventure I got a sweet, yet a a bit of heat in the background of the dish.

The first thing I did was prepare the sauce a day ahead.  Why?  I had nothing to do the day before, so I could put in the time to make the sauce.  Despite all the ingredients I assembled, it's a simple marinara sauce.  Don't think of it as complicated.  Think of it as an adventure to tasting something worthwhile.  Granted if I had some more time and money I may use fresher ingredients, like actual tomatoes instead of canned.

One thing was a standout for me is I didn't use wine in the sauce.  I ran out, and went with the flow.  The next time I try this I will for sure ass wine to the sauce. A simple red wine will do for me. Was tempted to get out the rum, but I want that for my drinks.

Sauce:

• Tomatoes (canned and diced)
• Tomato sauce
• Tomato paste (small can - for thickness)
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Salt
• Pepper
• Italian seasonings
• Garlic
• Basil
• Bay leaf
• Crushed rosemary
• sugar (cuts out acid taste)
• Wine (optional)

Sweet with a little heat.

Add tomatoes to pot along with tomato sauce, paste. Add seasonings. Dice onions and add mushroom last. Bring to boil then allow to simmer.If making sauce is not your option, please feel free to use your favorite marinara sauce for jars. I for sure wanted to try something on my own this time around for my sauce.

Meats:

• Italian sausage (spicy). Cook and allow to cool.
• Ground chuck. Brown, season, drain, and allow to cool.

You can either add the meats to the sauces or keep separate. Since I'm doing layers I wanted to see how it worked as a separate.  I typically create a meat sauce.  Also I used less meat than I normally would. Part of me wants the taste of meat without a lot of the heaviness. Like all the parts of this dish, the meat is optional.

For the sausage, I quartered each link and diced them. I mixed the sausage and chuck together.

Cheeses (all shredded except Ricotta)

• Ricotta
• Mozzerella
• Cheddar
• Parmesan

Spreads smooth and evenly.

I'm told it may have been cheaper to buy cheese wedges and grate them myself than to buy the shredded packages. I should do more comparative shopping in regards to this, but I didn't.  Feel fee to "one up" me on this juncture. Mix Ricotta in bowl with two eggs. Add shredded cheeses. Add seasonings. Don't add too much shredded cheese or the ricotta will thicken and won't spread.

Additional ingredients: Spinach. It has a completely different taste than I'm used to on my lasagna, but it's worth it adding to this recipe.

Pasta:
Use whatever lasagna pasta you like. For this recipe I used a no boil pasta, which allowed me a bit more free time in the cooking process.

Preheat your oven to 375.

Just one layer.

Assembling the layers is easy.  Instructions called for using a non-stick spray on the bottom of the tray.  I used olive oil.  The next layer is simply a thin layer of sauce.  This is another reason I wanted the meat separate.  Let the sauce hang out at the bottom.  Meat's in the middle.  If your ricotta's spreadable, you'll have less trouble with assembly. I know for me when I made it too think in the past, I thought it would met down.  I was wrong. Big lumps of ricotta is not fun when you want as even a bites as possible.

Once assembled, cover lasagna with foil and bake.

One thing I knew would happen is I didn't have a deep enough lasagna tray. What I did was take my pizza dish and placed it on the rack beneath the lasagna. In hindsight I could've bought a disposable tray that was deeper. This would leave me with an easier time of cooking.

Good and browned, and waiting
for me to cut into.  

The lasagna bakes for 50-60 minutes. Afterwards I removed the foil and added shredded mozzarella and cheddar to the top. You can brown this for 5 mins but I let it stay in there for about 15 mins.
Cutting into this was a treat.  it was good, warm, and tasty as all get out.  I'm sure many have variations of the same dish, but this was fun to put together and discuss.