Lasagna - Next Gen

At heart, this is my mom's lasagna recipe which everyone loved, but with a few slight changes in attention to detail and even my mom says it's better than hers.

Bottom line - it's all about the ingredients.  Quality ingredients will make or break every recipe, and this one is no exception.  In this recipe, it's all about the sauce.  Get the sauce right and the rest of it can have average ingredients.





Sauce
3 lbs ground beef (85-90% - high quality)
2 28 oz cans of tomato sauce (I use Dei Fratelli)
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatos (Dei Fratelli)
1 onion diced
1 green pepper diced
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
salt & pepper

Other Ingredients
2-3 cups home made ricotta cheese + about 1/2 cup cream
OR
1 large container 4% small curd store bought cottage cheese + 1 egg

1-2 Tbls fresh chopped Italian parsely
shredded mozzarella cheese
Lasagna noodles

Make the sauce:
Chop the onion and green pepper. Put in large sauce pot along with the hamburger.  Salt and pepper the meat now before cooking it.  Brown the ground beef.  Stir and crumble the beef while cooking getting the beef into small bits.

The key to this step is to watch the juices.  As the beef browns the water cooks out leaving behind the oil. However, there's a lot of flavor in those juices.  A key mistake people make is draining the beef too soon - they lose a lot of the broth that provides the flavor.  You have two options.  One, cook it down until the the juice is clear and you can see it's just oil.  Then it's ok to drain it off.  The second method is to not drain it off until after you've added the tomato sauce.  The oil will rise to the top and the juices will absorb into the broth. This method only works if your beef isn't too high in fat.  If you use an 85 or 90% beef, it's ok.  Using an 80% been will result in too much fat and a greasy sauce.  95% beef doesn't have enough fat and you won't get the flavor you desire.

One you've got the beef mixture cooked and ready, add the crushed garlic.  Then I add 1 can of the tomato sauce and the can of crushed tomatos. I'll let that cook a bit, and then add about 1/2 to 3/4 of the other can of tomato sauce. As you're cooking the sauce, taste it to determine if you need more salt. I know salt is "bad" for you, but it really does make the difference in this sauce. You don't want the sauce to get too saucy or you'll have runny lasagna. The real key is to let the sauce cook.  I like to cook it for a couple hours, on low heat stirring (and sampling) occasionally, but 1 hour is good. If it seems to saucy, cook it down more.  If you don't have time, you can add tomato paste to thicken it up.

Cheese Mixture

If you're using homemade ricotta, mix a clove of crushed garlic and some cream with it. Making ricotta at home is REALLY easy.  Here's the recipe I follow, method 2 or 3 are my favorites. But, whatever you do, don't use that gross stuff you buy in the grocery store that they call "ricotta" it simply isn't ricotta cheese! It's some sort of unknown paste! If you're using cottage cheese instead, mix the egg and garlic with it.  Then mix the chopped Italian parsley into whichever one you're using.

Assembly

To assemble, put some oil in the bottom of the pan so the lasagna doesn't stick.  Layer the first layer of lasagna noodles down.  Then put 1/2 of of the cheese mixture down and spread the mozzarella cheese on that - use however much you like.  I probably put about 1-2 cups down.  Then layer the sauce.  Repeat this one more time - noodles, cheese mix, mozzarella cheese, sauce.  I promise next time I make this I will measure how much sauce I put down. I never end up using all the sauce, but I do use nearly all of it.

I know it sounds crazy, but I sprinkle that fake powedery parmesan cheese on the top layer.  That's how mom always did it and it adds a nice flavor.  I never use that stuff on ANYTHING else because it's not like REAL parmesan.  So, I always keep a little around only for this recipe!

Cook it for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 350.  You'll know it's done when it's bubbly around the edges and in the middle too.  When it's done, be sure to let it sit for at least 10 minutes before you cut it or it will fall all over.

Salute!