Lasagna!

Pam was nice enough to think of me when someone here at LHOP (I believe Jacob) said they wanted a lasagna recipe.. sorry it took me so long to get to posting it (I'll be honest, I get waaaaay too sidetracked by Facebook and Farmville when I get some 'net time!) but here it is as best I could do with most of the recipe being a pinch of this and a handful of that! I don't see the original thread so move this wherever needed.. :)


Sauce:

In the BIGGEST pot you have, warm up some olive oil over low flame. Chop about 1/2 a large onion & about 6 healthy sized garlic cloves in the food processor. Feel free to use more or less onion & garlic depending on your taste! There should be enough olive oil cover the little bits of onion & garlic. DON'T let them burn, even slightly burned will leave aftertaste in the sauce. If they're turning brown they're passed ready! Add 2 30oz cans of tomato puree & 2 6oz cans of tomato paste, then equal parts water. Turn up flame to medium, stir up mixture w/ fork to break up blobs of tomato paste. Add salt, black pepper, parsley, oregano & basil to taste. Add the spices a little at a time, you can always add more if it's not strong enough for you, but you sure can't un-spice it LOL! Cover sauce & let simmer (it needs to thicken, it's gonna look watery at this point). Leave cover slightly askew to let out steam & stir occasionally.

Now, meat group!

In a BIG frying pan put 2 pkgs (5 pc in each pk) Italian sausages over low to medium flame. Add a can of room temperature beer & let fry. Add another beer as previous one evaporates. Flip sausages occasionally. You'll see the brown stickiness forming in the bottom of the pan as each beer evaporates. That is gonna be pure FLAVOR for your sauce! After approx 4 beers, sausages should be done. Turn the flame up higher towards that 4th beer to make the sausages brown up nice, flipping more frequently to prevent burning. Put sausages in sauce, either whole or sliced up, your choice. Pour all of that sausage/beer stickiness on the bottom of the pan into the sauce too. Then put some hot water in the bottom of the pan & get all the scrapings you can out of it. That scrapings/water mix goes in the sauce as well. Using that same pan (no need to wash it) brown 4 pounds of chop meat. Drain the chop meat when done. Put about half in the pot of sauce. The other half will go inside the lasagna.

Boil enough water for a 1lb box of lasagna noodles. Add just a splash of vegetable oil to the water to prevent noodles from sticking. Drain noodles as soon as they're al dente. If they get too soft they're harder to place in the lasagna pan. While noodles are boiling make the ricotta filling. HUGE bowl, add 1 30oz container of ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, and (to taste) shredded mozzarella, parmesan cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper & parsley. If you're not sure how much of the "to taste" ingredients to add, leave the eggs out 'til last so you can taste the mixture as you add stuff without eating raw egg & risking salmonella. Once you've got the cheese mixture to your liking, add eggs.

Time to start layering! Our glass baking pan is 11"x15", so in as close a size pan as you have, put a little bit of sauce on the bottom. Layer of noodles, a little sauce, layer of chop meat, a little sauce, layer of ricotta mixture, a little sauce, start over w/ the noodles. Should be about 3 layers. In 350° preheated oven, bake lasagna for 1 hour - 1st half covered w/ tinfoil, 2nd half uncovered. Pack on the shredded mozzarella on top to melt for the last 5-10 of baking.

If at any time the sauce seems too thick (it's gonna be CHUNKY!) feel free to add more hot water. Add the water a little at a time. You can always add more but you can't un-water it LOL! I hope it comes out great! Thanks to my mom and all the years she made Sunday sauce!

Sounds Wonderful Ange, Thank you very much for the Recipe

Sorry about the Mispelling of your name

Oh, Ange, this sounds SO good. I told Tim we need to plan a nice dinner one time soon when the band comes over to practice and I think this lasagna will make a group of hungry guys very happy. Thanks again for taking the time to post it.

It'll be enough to feed everyone too! You're gonna need a crane to lift it out of the oven! :)

at'cha JW!

And hey, how do you correctly spell JW?

Sounds delicious, Ange! And I'm guessing w/the beer the alcohol all evaporates away so its OK for the kiddos? Any specific brand?

I've been trying new recipes lately so this one will be on my list.

poo_cat wrote:

It'll be enough to feed everyone too! You're gonna need a crane to lift it out of the oven! :)

I bet you're right. I can't wait to try it. It sounds so full of flavor. I'll let you know how it turns out.

OMG Misti I KNEW I'd forget something! My apologies!!! The kid-friendly recipe is made with ginger ale instead! When you make a recipe like this where the food cooks for several hours, the alcohol will cook away and just leave the flavor, but I can understand still being uneasy. I've made both versions for Larry and he loved both. The taste is near identical with the ginger ale version being less-than-a-hair sweeter, but if you made the ginger ale version first you'd never know!

P.S. Misti - no particular brand of anything is needed. Most of the groceries we buy are generic unless someone has a particular distaste for something. Fresh herbs are always better, and hey, if you wanna peel and seed a few pounds of Roma tomatoes it sure wouldn't hurt! But we modern working women can save that for the little old nonas sitting in the hills of Sicily.



lol, this thread has led me to discover I really like that smiley!

Thanks, Ange! I'm gonna try & make it soon. I've been trying out some new recipes lately and this one will fit right in.

Ok, I will try it with ginger ale; I know you said you use 4 beers, how much ginger ale do you use?

Same amount Misti - approximately 4 cans. If your sausage is cooked enough using 3 cans, or if you slow simmer them and it takes 5-6 cans, that is ok! Same thing with the spices - use the recipe as a guide and adjust it to your broods' taste. That's the great thing about making Sunday sauce, you just have to keep tasting and sampling and eating it to make sure it's just right!

I have the sauce simmering on the stove at this very moment, and it already tastes delicious. I can't wait to taste the finished product.

My stomach was growling all through church this morning just thinking about it.

I made it Sunday when Tim had his band over for practice. I got a lot of compliments about the sausage in the sauce. It makes a lot, so it's great for a crowd. And, we've been enjoying some leftovers too.