Lasagne

I made a really good lasagna when Cynthia was here and I thought I'd share the recipe. Rob claims it was one of the best he's ever eaten and so also wanted me to document what I did so that I'd remember for next time.

For me - this lasagna is a good balance between speed and result. It's not as time consuming as preparing sauce from scratch, making a bechamel, and using fresh pasta but it tastes better than many of the other 'quick' varieties. I have, of course, included a meat version and a vegetarian version.

Mixture 1a: The Meat mixture
1lb ground beef
1 cup or red wine
½ can of Hunts tomato sauce, roasted garlic
chili flakes, oregano, salt and pepper to taste

- Saute the ground beef until brown. If you haven't used a lean ground beef, drain off some of the fat. Stir in the wine and tomato sauce and heat until the sauce is reduced (the fumes coming off the pan don't smell like alcohol). The mixture should be decidedly saucy. If it seems at all dry, add either more sauce, more wine, or a bit of water.
- Stir in chili flakes (I used about 2 tsp), oregano (I used about 1 tblsp), and salt and pepper to taste.

Mixture 1b: The Vegetarian Version
1 large eggplant, sliced in 1/4 inch slices
2 tsp salt
1/2 can of Hunts tomato sauce, roasted garlic

- Toss the eggplant with salt and drain in a colander, over the sink, for 2-4 hours
- Mix the tomato sauce with the eggplant (make sure it's saucy)

Mixture 2: The Mushroom mixture
½ white onion
3-4 portobello mushrooms
2 cups button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
2tblsp olive oil
½ can of Hunts tomato sauce, roasted garlic flavour
1 cup or so red wine
oregano, salt and pepper to taste

- Saute the onion and mushrooms with the garlic in the olive oil.

Mixture 3: The Cheese Mixture
1 container (2 cups) ricotta
½ box frozen spinach
1 egg
½ cup of grated Parmesan cheese

- Mix all together in a bowl

1.5 boxes of lasagna noodles

Assembly
Layer in a deep 9x13 in pan:
½ cup Hunt's tomato sauce, roasted garlic flavour
Enough noodles to roughly cover the pan
½ of the meat mixture (or half of the eggplant mixture)
Enough noodles to roughly cover the meat mixture
Remaining ½ of meat mixture (or remainder of eggplant mixture)
Enough noodles to roughly cover the meat mixture
The mushroom mixture
Enough noodles to roughly cover the mushroom mixture
The cheese mixture
Enough noodles to roughly cover the cheese mixture
1/2 cup of sauce, spread over the noodles
1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese, covering the top

Cover with foil and bake at 350 F for an hour. Remove the cover and bake another 10-15 minutes until cheese is golden and bubbling.

Talk to you later,
B.