Growing up in Chicago, I grew up with lot's of Italian friends and have probably ate at least twice my body weight in lasagna! The BEST lasagna I remember growing up came one one our my parent's friends, Jean Kirkpatrick.( with a name like that...NOT Italian!) I would always look forward to going to there home for Jena's lasagna and her chocolate mayonnaise cake with a hot fudge sauce topping.
I bugged Top Chef Fabio today for a recipe, but no luck. After watching his incredible gnocchi demonstration on Sunday I was inspired to make something Italian for dinner tonight.
This recipe is my own, but inspired by Jean Kirkpatrick. She always put cottage cheese in hers, and I remember always loving the flavor and texture it put into her lasagna that was different from all of my Italian friends. I always make LARGE quantities of homemade sauce when I make sauce, put usable amounts into freezer bags, and take out of freezer to use for times like tonight. Use you own homemade sauce for this, or if in a pinch, you can use a quality canned sauce like Barilla. My sauce was a roasted garlic an basil sauce
Ken's Easy Lasagna
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage or ground pork
- 3/4 pound lean ground beef
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 14 oz can of diced Italian tomatoes
- 1 cup of diced peppers (I use red, yellow, and orange)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 15 lasagna noodles
- 16 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 24 oz of small curd cottage cheese
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup provolone
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
- In a large pan, cook sausage or ground pork, ground beef and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Drain. Stir in diced tomatoes tomatoes, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and bell peppers. Simmer, uncovered, for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 10-12 oz of your prepaid sauce.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, cottage cheese, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- To assemble, spread 1/2 cups of your pre-made sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 5 noodles lengthwise over sauce. Spread with 1/3 of meat sauce mixture, then top that with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
Oh my Gosh!!!! Food Porn is Right! MY stomach growled when I saw this! WOW !! Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteA great Sunday Dinner for sure! Will you be freezing any of it?
Oh no...Sunday dinner are always more "fancy"... ;) I may freeze part, the other, Will be my retired neighbors Joe and Barbs dinner tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteWow! That looks amazing. I was planning to make mozzarella - and now I have a use! Drool worthy photos.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that looks intense!
ReplyDelete