Monday, March 26, 2012

Mom's Lasagna!

Hello, readers! Tonight's dinner is a classic - homemade lasagna!

This recipe comes from my mother, and is always good! (But especially good on freakish nights where it gets cold again. Not happy about that!!)

I'm not going to lie about this one - not as simple as the others, mainly because it has homemade sauce. But it does freeze great, so you may as well make two while you're at it and throw one in the freezer!!

Ingredients:
  • 1 onion
  • 1 green pepper
  • Mushrooms (as many as you want! I used half of a package for 1 lasagna)
  • 6oz can tomato paste
  • 29 oz can tomato puree 
  • Salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and oregano (to taste)
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • Lasagna noodles (1 lb if normal noodles, 1 box if no-boil noodles. YES it is a thing!)
  • 1 lb ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1 lb shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Romano cheese
Directions:
Make the sauce:
Dice the onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Brown in olive oil.
Brown the ground beef.
Add tomato paste and tomato puree. Rinse out tomato paste can with water and add to the sauce until it is of desired thickness.
Add the spices to taste... I like adding a little more basil than I do oregano, and just a bit of the other spices. (I am aware at how vague that was, but it really is individual per your palate!)
Add the ground beef, and let the sauce simmer for at least 1 to 2 hours. 

Assemble the lasagna:
Preheat the oven to 375oF.
Mix the egg in with the ricotta.

Using a 9x13 dish (or a lasagna pan), layer sauce, noodles, ricotta, and mozzarella. 

Repeat layers until 3 layers of each. Sprinkle Romano on the top when done with layers.
Layer 1: Sauce (yumm!)

Layer 2: Noodles! These are the no-boil noodles

Layer 3: Ricotta cheese

Layer 4: Mozzarella

Cook uncovered for 30 minutes, and serve with extra sauce. (And crusty bread. As I have said many times here on the Fork and Dagger, EVERYTHING goes well with crusty bread!)



Enjoy! (And then, enjoy a second time around when you reheat your second lasagna. Go ahead, thank me later :) You'll be glad you made it!)