In our house, only authentic Italian dishes will meet the bar. My husband is Italian and grew up with Italian home cooked meals on a regular basis. To satisfy his appetite for heavy carbs I cave in and make a good old fashioned lasagna once in awhile.
Of course if you are going to put the work into a lasagna, you might as well go big or go home! I use a large pan and put half in the freezer and still have enough to feed extended family! It’s really quite easy if you already have premade sauce. In September of every fall we pick bushels of tomatoes. It’s a family affair getting the tomatoes ready for the year; sometimes enlisting the labour of my own kids and nephews. (they like to come and splatter the rotting ones in the fields). After days of work and a lot of cooking, we are sometimes fortunate to have enough homemade sauce to last throughout the year…..(sometimes we run out).
In September, look for the new post on making the authentic marinara sauce our family makes. However, for the purpose of the recipe we will assume you have a pantry stocked with your last years tomato picking, or at the very least have made a trip to the supermarket aisle for a jar of the very best money can buy. 🙂
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 3/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp fresh garlic
- 2 jars pasta sauce
- 1 jar strained tomatoes
- 1 500ml tub cottage cheese
- 1 500ml tub ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup parmesan or romano cheese
- 5 lb bag mozzarella cheese
- 2 boxes oven ready lasagna noodles (egg noodles)
- 1-2 cups water or vegetable cocktail
- 1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
- Brown beef and pork together in cast iron or stainless frying pan. Add seasonings while cooking (salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and fresh garlic) You can also add a pinch of the Italian seasoning here and some finely chopped onion is optional.
- Let meat stick to the bottom of the pan and deglaze the pan with a bit of red wine or water to get all the brown bits of flavour up in the meat. set aside to cool
- cover bottom of large lasagna pan (I use 11x15) with a jar of strained tomatoes. (save the jar)
- cover with noodles. (You can use fresh noodles if you wish) I will add a post for homemade past noodles in the next couple of weeks and add a link here)
- cover noodles with cottage cheese and ricotta cheese. Sprinkle some of the parmesan, salt and pepper in the cheese mix
- cover with another layer of noodles
- cover with the cooked meat and add a jar of the pasta sauce and some mozzarella
- cover with another layer of pasta and repeat with the sauce and cheese add water to the tomato jars and get the last of the tomatoes out of the jars. Pour over the noodles. The noodles need to be wet to cook properly. It's better to have your lasagna more on the moist side as it will dry up.
- In top layer cover with sauce and the rest of the parmesan, salt, pepper and italian seasoning, with the mozzarella last
- Bake at 350 for 1 and half to 2 hours covered. Uncover in last half hour and turn the temperature up to 400 to brown the mozzarella cheese.
- Enjoy!
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