Lovely Lasagna

Hey ya'll.

Last week I made a delicious lasagna with homemade sauce. Hey, it turns out that homemade sauce is pretty easy to make! A couple of years ago Bryan's mom invited me over for what I call "Sauce Day." I learned how to make homemade meat sauce and manicotti. It was really fun, and I felt honored that his mom wanted to share her recipes with me. Bryan's mom is from Italy, and in my opinion she is very authentically Italian. She has the most beautiful accent, and many recipes in her house are written in Italian. I was very excited about Sauce Day (and also that Bryan's family is from Italy) because I've always admired the Italian culture (particularly the food!). My mom does, too. Growing up she was the biggest fan of Italian culture I'd ever met. It's really comical because her parents were from Ireland. Both my mom and I are 100% Irish; however, we've both always had a longing to be Italian, too. I joke that since I married an Italian, now I'm Italian, too! Anyway, I thought that learning some family recipes would be a good way to involve myself in my (now) husband's family and past (as well as learn how to make delicious pasta and meat sauce).

One of my goals is to develop my own recipes a bit and be able to cook things off of the top of my head. I'm excellent at following directions and have made many great meals from a cookbook or recipe card, but I feel that the art of knowing ingredients and procedure by heart is kind of dead. I would say that most people my age aren't able to put together a meal without the help of a recipe card or smartphone. Anyway, I've learned that people that are closer to my parents age have this skill, and when I ask them for recipes I'm told a story with little to no specific measurements or ingredients. Case in point- growing up my mom made homemade sauce, too, and when I asked her for the recipe it was, "You take some olive oil, put it in a big pot. Heat it up, add some cans of crushed tomatoes, then some seasoning. Let it sit. Add some more oil, maybe some cheese." You get the idea. Uhhhh, Ma! How MUCH? How MANY jars of tomatoes? What seasonings?!? What kind of cheese?! Ah! Same deal on Sauce Day. My recipe cards from that day are just paragraphs of suggested values... it was wonderful, but also funny to me-"some oil, then some onions or garlic, heat it up. Brown the sausage- lamb, pork, whatever, then take it out, put the tomatoes in, then some seasoning..." It was basically the same deal as my mom's directions except that it was a recipe for a meat sauce. LOVE IT! The manicotti recipe was slightly more precise, but not by much. Anyway, it was fun and everything turned out really well. Since then I've made sauce many times and it's fun to get my own version going which I feel like I can do since I was never given hard and fast rules about making a tomato sauce. I've found that many sauce recipes are kind of informal, and really depend on personal preference.

So I decided to let the sauce cook all day. If I recall, the weather was pretty gnarly so it was nice to stay inside with sauce simmering on the stove, delightful smells wafting through the apartment.

After a few football games the sauce was looking nice and thick. It was time to assemble. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and got my dairy out of the fridge.

Sidenote- another one of my goals is to try to "healthify" recipes as much as possible without sacrificing flavor. This can be tough, but not with lasagna! Since I didn't make a meat sauce I decided to sneak some veggies into the lasagna. I used a package of frozen chopped spinach- let it thaw, drained it a bit.

I made the filling with a 15 oz. container of low-fat ricotta (I go for the all natural I really like Calabro. I feel like their low-fat ricotta isn't as thin as other brands, plus I've yet to see organic ricotta cheese anywhere. Whole Foods sells Calabro), 1 egg, and 1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese. I mixed a lot of spinach directly into the filling mixture. Note- you'll also need mozzarella cheese for the layering.

For the first time, I used "no boil" noodles. I was skeptical, but they were on sale and many chefs use them (well, the chefs on the Food Network do!). I used Barilla noodles, but not whole wheat (oftentimes I do- in my opinion lasagna is a good dish to use whole wheat pasta because there is so much going on and so much moisture that the pasta isn't usually the main thing- it's really an ensemble cast). I've heard that no boil noodles can result in a dry lasagna, but I think the frozen spinach helps the situation because frozen spinach retains so much water, even after draining it. So it puts some moisture back into the casserole. 

Anyway, I assembled the lasagna, and baked it for about 35 minutes. My sister came over for dinner, too. We opened up a bottle of red (we really enjoy a montepulciano d'abruzzo in my house) and went to town on the lasagna. Whaddya know? The no boil noodles were fabulous! The lasagna was the best I've ever made. Delizioso!

Sauce:


- About a Tbs. of extra virgin olive oil- enough to coat the bottom of a large, heavy stockpot or dutch oven
- 2 28 oz. jars of whole, peeled, plum tomatoes (or crushed, but I use whole and let them break up as the sauce sits on the stove. the result is a chunkier sauce. If you don't like chunks of tomatoes, you can get jars of whole tomatoes and put them in the blender, food processor, or food mill to break them up)
- 1 28 oz. jar of "no salt added" tomato sauce
- Minced garlic- about 1-2 Tbs. (2 cloves)
- Several dashes of dried oregano, basil, salt, pepper - to taste!


Heat oil in a large pot or dutch oven, add garlic. Pour 2 jars of whole tomatoes in, and let sit for an hour or so. (Note- you can literally make a tomato sauce in WAY less time- it is not necessary to let everything sit for so long, but I like to make a really rich, thick sauce AND I'm lazy about breaking up the whole tomatoes and the longer you let the sit, the easier they break up). Fill one of the cans with water and set it aside- you may need to add some water to the sauce later on, and you can get some more of the tomato in if you do it this way. Add some seasoning and let it cook. Add the jar of tomato sauce, fill that can with water and set aside (same reasoning as before). Let it cook for as long as you like on very low heat, periodically stirring and adding seasonings. It's basically done when you think it's done- however chunky you want it, thick, etc. My mom adds oil throughout so thicken it up, too.

Lasagna:
15 oz. container of low-fat ricotta cheese
About 6 oz. of mozzarella (you can use more or less, depending on your preference)
1 box of chopped, frozen spinach (try to get organic. The price isn't that different, and spinach is one of the dirtiest veggies)
1 egg
1/2 c. of shredded parmesan cheese
Barilla no boil noodles (haven't tried any other brand of no boil yet, so I can't recommend just anything without having tried it)

I switch between a rectangular 1/2 or 2 quart glass pan or a taller square pan- the taller pan means more layers and alters the cooking time slightly (takes longer). Start by spreading a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan, then lay some noodles down. Spread the spinach ricotta mixture evenly over the noodles, then add sauce and sprinkle mozzarella. Repeat this process until you run out of noodles or it's thick enough. Personally, I like many thin layers. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the top layer of cheese is brown and bubbly. I add parmesan cheese to the top layer as well. Let the lasag cool for at least 10 minutes. Many times lasagna is better the following day because it sits for a while and firms up. Then you end up with a nice structured piece of casserole. Enjoy for the night or if there's just 1 or 2 of you, the rest of the week! Mmmmm.