Lazy weekend lasagna
Although you can obviously make this on non-weekend days, the cooking and prep time can be on the lengthy side, so I tend to make it on days with a more forgiving schedule. You can make any kind of meat and tomato pasta sauce you like, as Cristina gives in her spaghetti recipe, but I've recently started using a slightly different method that has worked out well for us.
You won't need a whole head of garlic, but 4-5 cloves is a good start, as well as a whole onion. You can smash up the cloves to remove the peel, chop roughly, then add to the food processor with onion cut into chunks and give it a few whirls.
Here's where it gets a little weird. We sisters have had numerous discussions as to how to get that soft, tender texture of meat in the sauce that you get at restaurants. America's Test Kitchen's book, Your Next Best Recipe, is a great resource but very particular in its execution so I've simplified their method, which is to start cooking the ground beef in milk. Add the raw ground beef to the sauteed vegetables, break it up into 2 inch chunks, then add a cup of milk. It will look very strange. Continue to cook the meat gently at medium heat, turning carefully, and as it cooks, start to break it up into smaller chunks.
It will look weirder and weirder as it cooks and you stir. Don't worry, it will look like that after you eat it anyway.
Once the meat has cooked down and broken into small pieces, add your tomato sauce. Now, I took a shortcut this weekend and used canned pasta sauce from the cupboard. It happened to be Hunts, but it could have been any prepared pasta sauce that was on sale at No Frills. It doesn't matter what it is because I end up fiddling with it anyway, adding more Italian herb mixture, basil and oregano, lemon juice, and tomato paste to taste. If I were to do this from scratch, I would have added two regular size cans of tomato sauce, seasoned with the same seasonings and possibly some beef boullion granules, a bay leaf, and then simmered it for about 20-30 minutes. With a prepared sauce, the simmering time was closer to 10.
At the point you are pretty happy with the texture and thickness of the sauce, you then thin it out with about a cup of water (rinse out your tomato sauce cans if you like) to make it watery again. Why? Because we are going to use oven ready lasagna noodles. And by oven ready, I mean ordinary lasagna noodles that you have soaked in a pan with boiling water for 10 minutes. You do not need to buy the kind actually labeled oven ready - but you do need to plan for extra liquid in the sauce and extra cooking time so they cook in the oven.
While the sauce is simmering, put together your ricotta filling. To me, this is what makes lasagna LASAGNA, not just spaghetti baked with rectangular noodles. Mix together one tub (apx 2 cups) of ricotta cheese, thawed drained frozen chopped spinach, and one egg with a little salt and pepper. If you want more flavour, you can add garlic powder but I prefer it slightly bland and creamy to contrast with the meat sauce.
Now for the assembly, which is a lot easier when using the uncooked lasagna noodles!
Place a layer of your runny looking sauce in a 9 x 13" baking dish, add a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce, noodles again, then your ricotta and spinach mix. Follow this up with one more layer of noodles and meat sauce. At this point, normal people would top their last layer of noodles with cheese. We don't, partly because we want the moisture of the meat sauce to help cook that last layer of noodles. Also, I can't digest ripened cheese. So I usually end up putting cheese on only part of the lasagna (and on top of the meat sauce). Finally, cover the baking dish loosely with aluminum foil and place in a 300 C oven. We use the lower temperature and a long cooking time - about 75 minutes - to make sure the noodles cook.
You can take off the foil periodically and pierce the lasagna with a fork to see if the noodles are soft. When they seem to have been cooked, you can then remove the foil, turn the oven up to 375 F, and let the cheese layer bubble up and brown, if you are in fact using cheese. I didn't have to worry about that in this case, so once it was done, we just let it settle for about 10 minutes, then dish it up!
Usually we have salad with a pasta meal like this, but this was a cold winter weekend and I had a ton of papers to grade, so I was content with having this with garlic bread. But you really probably should have a salad or steamed broccoli with it, cause you need your vitamins and fibre, don't you know.
Ingredients:
For sauce:
1 whole onion, cut in chunks
4-5 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 medium peeled carrots
1 stalk celery, trimmed
run through food processor till fine, then sautee in 1-2 tbsp olive oil till translucent
1 lb lean ground beef
add to pan in 2 inch chunks
1 c milk
pour into pan and allow beef to simmer, turning gently to cook and dividing meat into smaller and smaller chunks till milk is almost evaporated and absorbed
Add:
1 can (apx 650 mL) prepared pasta sauce
OR
2 cans tomato sauce
to the above, season with italian herb mix, oregano, basil, and 1/2 can tomato paste. If sauce is too acidic, add 1 tbsp brown sugar (or to taste). If too bland, add a dash of lemon juice. Simmer for apx 10 min.
If cooking sauce from scratch, simmer for longer (20-30 min) and add bay leaf and 1 Tbsp beef boullion granules
Ricotta filling:
1 tub ricotta cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 egg
mix together and season with 1/2 tsp salt and ground black pepper
"Oven ready" noodles:
12 (plus an extra two broken up for the ends) lasagna noodles, regular
Place in baking dish and cover with about 6 cups boiling water. Let sit 10-15 minutes, then drain and set aside till ready for assembly
To assemble:
Place ingredients in 9 x 13" pan his order: sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, ricotta filling, noodles, sauce, noodles, meat sauce, then optional cheese.
once assembled, cover loosely with foil and bake at 300 F for 60-75 minutes. Test periodically by lifting foil and poking with a fork to see if noodles are done. If desired, remove foil and bake at 375 F to brown cheese layer, if using.
You won't need a whole head of garlic, but 4-5 cloves is a good start, as well as a whole onion. You can smash up the cloves to remove the peel, chop roughly, then add to the food processor with onion cut into chunks and give it a few whirls.
I have always used celery and carrots in my sauce, but I've found I really prefer the texture when they have also been put through the food processor into small pieces. Two medium sized carrots and one large celery stalk whirled through the food processor, then added to the sautee pan with a few teaspoons of olive oil. Let them "sweat" until softened and translucent.
Here's where it gets a little weird. We sisters have had numerous discussions as to how to get that soft, tender texture of meat in the sauce that you get at restaurants. America's Test Kitchen's book, Your Next Best Recipe, is a great resource but very particular in its execution so I've simplified their method, which is to start cooking the ground beef in milk. Add the raw ground beef to the sauteed vegetables, break it up into 2 inch chunks, then add a cup of milk. It will look very strange. Continue to cook the meat gently at medium heat, turning carefully, and as it cooks, start to break it up into smaller chunks.
It will look weirder and weirder as it cooks and you stir. Don't worry, it will look like that after you eat it anyway.
Once the meat has cooked down and broken into small pieces, add your tomato sauce. Now, I took a shortcut this weekend and used canned pasta sauce from the cupboard. It happened to be Hunts, but it could have been any prepared pasta sauce that was on sale at No Frills. It doesn't matter what it is because I end up fiddling with it anyway, adding more Italian herb mixture, basil and oregano, lemon juice, and tomato paste to taste. If I were to do this from scratch, I would have added two regular size cans of tomato sauce, seasoned with the same seasonings and possibly some beef boullion granules, a bay leaf, and then simmered it for about 20-30 minutes. With a prepared sauce, the simmering time was closer to 10.
At the point you are pretty happy with the texture and thickness of the sauce, you then thin it out with about a cup of water (rinse out your tomato sauce cans if you like) to make it watery again. Why? Because we are going to use oven ready lasagna noodles. And by oven ready, I mean ordinary lasagna noodles that you have soaked in a pan with boiling water for 10 minutes. You do not need to buy the kind actually labeled oven ready - but you do need to plan for extra liquid in the sauce and extra cooking time so they cook in the oven.
While the sauce is simmering, put together your ricotta filling. To me, this is what makes lasagna LASAGNA, not just spaghetti baked with rectangular noodles. Mix together one tub (apx 2 cups) of ricotta cheese, thawed drained frozen chopped spinach, and one egg with a little salt and pepper. If you want more flavour, you can add garlic powder but I prefer it slightly bland and creamy to contrast with the meat sauce.
Now for the assembly, which is a lot easier when using the uncooked lasagna noodles!
Place a layer of your runny looking sauce in a 9 x 13" baking dish, add a layer of noodles, a layer of sauce, noodles again, then your ricotta and spinach mix. Follow this up with one more layer of noodles and meat sauce. At this point, normal people would top their last layer of noodles with cheese. We don't, partly because we want the moisture of the meat sauce to help cook that last layer of noodles. Also, I can't digest ripened cheese. So I usually end up putting cheese on only part of the lasagna (and on top of the meat sauce). Finally, cover the baking dish loosely with aluminum foil and place in a 300 C oven. We use the lower temperature and a long cooking time - about 75 minutes - to make sure the noodles cook.
You can take off the foil periodically and pierce the lasagna with a fork to see if the noodles are soft. When they seem to have been cooked, you can then remove the foil, turn the oven up to 375 F, and let the cheese layer bubble up and brown, if you are in fact using cheese. I didn't have to worry about that in this case, so once it was done, we just let it settle for about 10 minutes, then dish it up!
Usually we have salad with a pasta meal like this, but this was a cold winter weekend and I had a ton of papers to grade, so I was content with having this with garlic bread. But you really probably should have a salad or steamed broccoli with it, cause you need your vitamins and fibre, don't you know.
Ingredients:
For sauce:
1 whole onion, cut in chunks
4-5 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 medium peeled carrots
1 stalk celery, trimmed
run through food processor till fine, then sautee in 1-2 tbsp olive oil till translucent
1 lb lean ground beef
add to pan in 2 inch chunks
1 c milk
pour into pan and allow beef to simmer, turning gently to cook and dividing meat into smaller and smaller chunks till milk is almost evaporated and absorbed
Add:
1 can (apx 650 mL) prepared pasta sauce
OR
2 cans tomato sauce
to the above, season with italian herb mix, oregano, basil, and 1/2 can tomato paste. If sauce is too acidic, add 1 tbsp brown sugar (or to taste). If too bland, add a dash of lemon juice. Simmer for apx 10 min.
If cooking sauce from scratch, simmer for longer (20-30 min) and add bay leaf and 1 Tbsp beef boullion granules
Ricotta filling:
1 tub ricotta cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 egg
mix together and season with 1/2 tsp salt and ground black pepper
"Oven ready" noodles:
12 (plus an extra two broken up for the ends) lasagna noodles, regular
Place in baking dish and cover with about 6 cups boiling water. Let sit 10-15 minutes, then drain and set aside till ready for assembly
To assemble:
Place ingredients in 9 x 13" pan his order: sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, ricotta filling, noodles, sauce, noodles, meat sauce, then optional cheese.
once assembled, cover loosely with foil and bake at 300 F for 60-75 minutes. Test periodically by lifting foil and poking with a fork to see if noodles are done. If desired, remove foil and bake at 375 F to brown cheese layer, if using.
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