A new look at cooking and home decorating...with an attempt to add more greens to the plate, more vegetarian options & hopefully lots of new ideas to explore

Monday, December 8, 2008

Lori’s Lasagna


My friend Lori made a version of this dish as part of an Italian wine tasting dinner, which I organized. This is a great make ahead dish. Lori uses low fat or skim versions of cheese, I went for the full fat flavor. Also, Lori omits the egg in the ricotta mixture, I left it in.

Meat Sauce:
1 pound ground beef, broken up in chunks then browned in a skillet, set aside
1 tablespoon oil
2 yellow onions, peeled and finely diced
2 medium cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 cans, 28 oz each, crushed tomatoes
Pinch of sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh pepper
½ teaspoon marjoram

In a medium Dutch oven, add the oil, and over medium to medium low heat, sweat the onions for about 7 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add in the tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper, and marjoram. Add the cooked meat and simmer, semi covered, for about 30 minutes. May be made ahead.

For the Lasagna-
1 recipe for the meat sauce
16 oz of grated mozzarella
1 8 oz box of no boil lasagna sheets
1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon marjoram
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

In a small bowl combine the ricotta, egg, salt, marjoram and Parmesan.

In a 9x 13” pan spread ¾ cup meat sauce over bottom of pan. Then, 3 sheet of pasta (no boil sheets should not overlap because they expand as they cook) on top of which will be-

2/3 cup of ricotta mixture spread over sheets, then 1 cup meat sauce spread on top, then 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Repeat again, lasagna, then meat sauce, and mozzarella until you run out of ricotta.

Your final layer will be 2-3 sheet of lasagna, then as much of the remaining meat sauce as you can fit, then the remaining mozzarella (about 1 cup) cover with aluminum foil. You can assemble this ahead, and when ready, bake in a 375 degree oven for 50-60 minutes. Let it rest 10-15 minutes before cutting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, YUMMY1 Can I come over for dinner?
Lisa, Did you take all these photos? AMAZING

Anonymous said...

p.s. I prefer the "FAT" way for a real treat.