The Recipe of the week is Lasagna. I will be trying to post a recipe each week, now this is not my “healthiest” recipe nor is it the greatest Lasagna recipe, but this was a throw together off of what I had on hand at the house! This was about 30 mins prep and 30 mins in the oven (so leave yourself a little time) but it was a fairly quick put together and it was super delicious! This is not perfect, but is just to show you that you can create a delicious dish from scratch in your kitchen without buying dinner out!
You can scroll all the way to the bottom for the official recipe – I am not going to walk you through step by step, but give some tips or changes if you don’t have what I did on hand.
I used Italian sausage, but you can use turkey with Italian seasoning, you can mix sausage and ground beef, you can use any form of meat (chicken if you dare)
I also wanted the Lasagna to be a little more creamy than tomato-ey (I know that’s not a word) 🙂 So I added a bechamel sauce – just a fancy word for a cream sauce with your choice of cheese, super simple to whip up! You could keep this in your back pocket for quick pasta dinners even if you do not have a sauce on hand. I started almost exclusively making my own sauce, its sooo simple! You will be surprised!
Also – garlic, buy those Frozen cubes or pre-minced in a jar (make sure you are buying all natural) but then you will ALWAYS have garlic on hand and not have to worry about it going bad. Fresh is always best, but on this front I keep it frozen 🙂
Make sure you layer well! I had a wonderful helper! And the “oven ready” pasta is AMAZING! I know its not hand made but you don’t have to worry about boiling your pasta and trying not to break it. I love it.
Ready to go in the oven! Even with not having milk and my hubby having to run to the store in the middle (don’t get me started on this front) 😦 We are only 40 mins in! Would have been less than 20 without a milk run! Unfortunately with a baby in the house transitioning to milk, we could not live without. I could have watered down the milk and make it work but we HAD to have it anyway.
After baking for about 25 mins (foil on), I decided this baby needed needed some cheese on top and back in it went – another 10 without foil and cheese on top 🙂
Let your Lasagna REST for about 5-10 mins, this will help the layers setup and stay together. So when you cut it, the rest of the layers don’t come ooozzing out on you! I hate that.
MMMM…. SOO delicious!
Pair this beauty with some garlic bread and a Caesar salad! It was fantastic!
One more just because 🙂
For a family of 4 (well 2 and 2 1/2s lol) – we had over 3/4 of the pan left. Which I refrigerated and popped in the oven when our friends came over and fed 4 adults, 2 – 5 year olds and a baby, very comfortably! You could make this and then save half for leftovers or shove it in the freezer (you can use a foil pan, or let it cool in the fridge for a day and scoop the whole thing out into a zip lock freezer bag!). Lasagna is an amazing “make double” meal so that you can plan ahead for those nights you just don’t feel like getting in the kitchen! Planning ahead is the name of the game here. And if you are already in the kitchen cooking it, why not double and freeze half? It’s the same amount of work today!
**Key on this recipe is to multi-task to help with time, however if you are not familiar with multi-tasking in the kitchen, just do 1 step at a time 🙂 Will take longer but you will be fine!
Recipe Deets:
Ingredients:
-1lb Ground Italian Sauasage (mild or hot)*
-3/4 6oz can Tomato Paste
-8oz can Tomato Sauce
-1/4 white onion*
-2 cloves garlic grated or chopped fine*
-3 tbsp Italian seasoning
-1/3 cup flour
-1/3 cup butter
-3 cups milk (leave on counter to make close to room temp)
-1 dash nutmeg
-3/4 cup cheese (finely shredded parm or a white mix cheese)*
-1 egg
-15 oz Ricotta*
-8 oz Mozzarella Cheese
-1 package Oven ready Lasagna noodles*
Steps:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Make the red sauce: Brown your meat (italian sausage), with the onion and garlic, once browned, add in the Tomato Paste and tomato sauce and 2 tbsp Italian seasoning and simmer for 10 mins. Set aside.
2. While you are doing step 1, you can start making the Bechamel sauce: put 1/3 cup butter in the sauce pan and melt, once melted – add in 1/3 cup flour and cook (whisking constantly) until a dark blonde color. Add in 3 cups milk SLOWLY* – wisking all the while. I would suggest to add in 1/2 cup at a time – add in dash of nutmeg and simmer for 10 mins (or until the sauce has thickened up for you, if it gets too thick on you, you can always add more milk). Take off heat and add in your 3/4 cup cheese slowly and whisk until well blended and all cheese is melted.
3. Make 3rd layer sauce – mix your 15oz Ricotta with 1 egg and 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
4. Ready to Layer! Place about 1/4 cup Bechamel sauce in the bottom of an 9×13 glass pan* – then layer your Noodles (its ok if they are not touching the sides- break the noodles if you need to fit) – then 1/3 of your Ricotta mix, 1/3 of your red sauce, pour Bechamel over red sauce, 1/3 your mozzarella – then repeat leave enough Bechamel for the very top(noodles, ricotta, red sauce, Bechamel, mozzarella- should be 3 layers of this) – for the top put your last layer of noodles and cover the top with Bechamel sauce.
5. Cover with foil and pop in the oven at 350 for 30-35 mins – you can take foil off the last 5 mins and sprinkle more mozzarella on top and let cook without over for 5-10 mins.
6. LET IT REST! Let it sit for 5-10 mins before cutting into it. This will ensure that your layers setup.
*Substitutes – because this is what you have on hand! and Tips:
-Meat – you can use a sausage mix, ground beef and sausage mix, turkey, or chicken for your meat
-Onion – can use 5 tbsp onion powder
-Garlic -Can use 2 spoons minced from a jar
-Cheese – I know it might not be budget friendly but I like to roam around and pick different parm mixes in the specialty cheese section (I ALWAYS fresh grate my cheese)
-Lasagna – can use the traditional noodles, just boil until al dente before layering
-Ricotta – you can sub this out for cottage cheese if you have that on hand!
-Milk in bechamel – a lot of sites say use hot milk, I find room temp to be fine and I have also been in a hurry and made it straight from fridge milk and its fine, just add it in slower if it is cold.
-Pan – here is where you can use smaller and make more layers, or SPLIT the recipe into 2 pans and throw 1 in the freezer!
Steph's Lifestyle 