Sundays Are For The Lasagna
Let’s talk Lasagna!
Fun weekend dinners are something my husband dreams about all week long, but for me a cozy Sunday family dinner is what gets me through the week. One of our favorites is a classic Lasagna! You can change up this recipe to fit your family or to use up anything you have on hand. After making this particular one I remembered that last time I had used a spicy sausage instead of regular ground pork. There was an obvious difference (to Paul at least) but still tasty just the same. Try it out and make it your own!
Recipe
Yield: 4-6 people (depending on how big of an eater you are)
Meat Sauce
1 lb Ground Beef (80/20)
1 lb Ground Pork
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Yellow Onion, Diced
1 6oz can Tomato Paste
1 cup White Wine - I used Black Box Pinot Grigio
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 28oz can San Marzano peeled tomatoes
TT Red Pepper Flakes
TT Salt & Pepper
Ricotta Mixture
1 lb Ricotta
1 Egg
1 cup Grated Parm
1 Tbsp Oregano
A few sprigs of fresh parsley & basil chopped
TT Salt & Pepper
1 box of Lasagna noodles
1 lb shredded mozzarella
⅕ lb fresh mozzarella
Procedure
Sauce: Brown both meats one at time in a large pot. Remove then saute garlic and onion. After about 5 minutes add in dried oregano and garlic powder and toast for about a minute. Add can of tomato paste and toast for another minute or two then add wine. Add peeled tomatoes and using an immersion blender/stick blender, puree. Add both meats back to the pot and reduce to a simmer. This is best to let cook for as long as possible but can be ready to use within 2 hours.
Ricotta: Combine all ingredients. Can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge up to a day in advance.
Building the lasagna: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Depending on the type of noodles you bought you may need to change up the pan. This time around I bought shorter noodles so I ended up using an 11x8 pan but you can adjust as needed. I also love just using a disposable pan, easy clean up!
Boil your noodles according to box instructions, for mine it was 4 minutes. After I shocked the noodles in cold water and made sure they were all separated. Start layering by adding a few ladle of meat sauce to the bottom of the pan then a layer of noodles, a layer of ricotta, a layer of sauce then a layer of shredded mozzarella. Repeat this until you are out of noodles. Finish the top layer with just ricotta and sauce. Cover and cook at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove from the oven and add shredded mozzarella and chunks of the fresh mozzarella and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Once cheese starts to melt, switch oven to a high broil to really brown the cheesy goodness. KEEP AN EYE ON THIS!!! It goes really fast, about 3 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes just to really set. Slice and enjoy! It's even better 1-2 days after initial baking.