Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Home Sweet Italy

Its been about 6 months since my gama died and every Thursday since them my gramps comes over to eat. We try to always have something home cooked and fancy but we dont always have time. Ive been working till 7 the past bunch of Thursdays and haven't been able to cook so I finally convinced him to change to Tuesday. Anyways today I wanted to make lasagna from scratch. He always eats Marie Calenders which to me are disgusting and not good for you...ok this lasagna isnt good for you either but whatever.
This recipe is real easy and I dont really use any actual measurements so bare with me and just kinda eyeball everything or judge it as to how many people you are feeding. Also I like to make my own noodles and pasta sauce but obvs you can use cans and dried pasta too.

I get:
a package of Italian Saugage
a small package of ground beef
a can of tomato paste



Cook the meat


Drain the meat, you dont have to but I dont like all the excess grease 


There is a lot of it.


Cut some fresh herbs, I used thyme, rosemary and oregano. Stir them in. Oh also I put a small can of tomato paste in to thicken the sauce. 


I use the big jar of ricotta, it comes out in a fun shape if you squeeze it just right.


A handful of basil, 2 eggs, a tsp of salt a big package of mozzarella (its better to use fresh) and a handfulish of Parmesan cheese. 


Mix this all together.


Itll look something like this, save some of the cheese to put on the top when its done.


Start layering, use a thin coat of the sauce first,


I put the noodles to dry out a bit on a towel.


Noodle layer,


Delicious ricotta layer,


And start again. Make sure you end with the sauce.


Cover it with the rest of the cheese and bake at 375 for about an hour. This is simple isnt it? Itll work out great everytime and you can impress all your friends with all the "hard" work you put into their dinner. Also if you want to make the noodles you can use a simple egg dough which is flour, salt and egg and mix it till you get a dough like consistency. You have to roll it out a bunch till its really thin and this does take time but to me it makes the lasagna a lot more tasty.
Have fun and let me know if you end up making it!!

4 comments:

  1. i never put sausage in my lasagna meat but that sounds really good. Will have to try it out next time.

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  2. I dont usually eat pork but it adds something to it.
    I actually also wouldnt put a whole can of tomato paste maybe...it made it a little too thick

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  3. I'm making lasagna soon! I like a lot of veggies though and I don't eat red meat so I'll be using ground turkey and tons of yummy veggies! :D

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