I have been talking about Lasagna for the past few days. I thought I would share what I mean... in this day and age of paying high prices for a meal that leaves ya feeling like something was missing.
Like love. Love for cooking, love for food and love for those you're cooking for. Today's food is about recipes, profits, and doing minimal while asking for maximum.
I cook like my Mamaw taught me... No written recipe, seeing it in my head and adapting the recipe for those about to consume it. (Life been a bit stressful lately? Add rosemary with the Italian spices, fragrance matters.)
Suggestions to reduce the time it takes because this can easily take 1 1/2 - 2 hrs start to finish:
Do multiple things at once, start with the sauce, while it's slow cooking on medium heat (dial number 5-6), mix the cheese, cut anything that needs sliced, mortar and pedestal your herbs and spices (makes the flavors pop), as your sauce begins to steam, turn it up to med high and start the meat. Soon as the sauce begins to bubble cut the heat down to low (3-4 on the dial) and stir moderately throughout the whole process to keep it from burning on the bottom. When the meat is done, leave it in the pan, off the eye for 3-5 minutes before stirring it into the sauce. Mix well, turn off the eye and take a break. Come back in 20 minutes to start the combining into the pasta pan.
Sauce mix: Slow cook 18-24 oz Tomato sauce, 12- 16 oz diced tomatoes, and about enough tomato paste (6 - 8 oz) to thicken up the sauce. Add some olive oil 1-2 tsp, Italian spices, sliced black olives (8-12 oz) and half that amount of sliced green olives and sliced mushrooms to taste. (Jalapeno for a spicy kick), (Rosemary and thyme for comfort) or (Whorishire and soy for a meaty robust) OR (pineapple and diced thin sliced ham) unusual yes, but taste fantastic.
Cheese Mixing: Mixing together 4 out of 5 lbs of mozzarella, 2 out of 3 lbs of Coby, 2 lbs Parmesan 2 lbs of Ricotta along with all the spices. (In a separate bowl toss the 1 lb of mozzarella and 1 lb of Coby)
Meat mix: Cook together 1 lb Italian sausage with 1 lb turkey burger or hamburger meat, add some Whorishire sauce for a bolder meat flavor (especially if using turkey), add garlic, black pepper and onion.
Noodles: I don't know how to make lasagna noodles from scratch, I buy the "ready for oven" kind. If you wish to boil your own, I'd advise a tsp of garlic, a dash of sea salt, olive oil, and some Italian herbs. If you add this before boiling the water, the noodles will absorb the flavors.
Once everything is cooked and cooled down some, place the first layer of lasagna noodles in a deep, large lasagna/cake pan. About a 1/3 of the cheese mix, topped with 1/3 of the meat sauce, and repeating two more times and using the remaining Coby/mozzarella for the top. Cook covered at 350 F for about 30 min, shut off the oven, remove the foil cover, turn on the broiler to low and place the lasagna back in. Usually takes about 5 minutes but watch it through the glass in the oven door... When the mozzarella starts to turn from this gross pasty white covered in grease to a light tan, things are going to burn quick. Within the next minute it'll turn a nice hue of gold, watch the edge and peaks for dark brown and pull it soon as you see that happening. Let it sit uncovered for 10 minutes, outside the oven. When it cools it'll look like the above picture. When you pull out a few pieces, it'll look like the below
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: this will weight between 12-15 lbs. Remember to bend at the knees when putting it in and out of the oven. You'll want a second piece but wait 15 minutes. Misery comes with that second piece ?.
Much like a relationship that you care about, this takes time, patience, sampling, adapting and dedication to make. If you put your heart in the process, you'll taste the difference by the smile on every mouth that consumes it. I do not make lasagna for me. I make it for those I give a shit about. It's that random reward to say thank you for being part of my life.
Max