Lazy Girl Lasagna
Feb. 13th, 2022 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingHomemade lasagna - hard work, right? It doesn't have to be. Yes, if you want to, you could pull out all the stops and make your sauce from scratch, use only artisanal ingredients, shred the cheese yourself... or you could lean into the wonders of the modern supermarket and make it easy. I usually have everything I need for this recipe on hand - the meat and ricotta can both be frozen, and everything else is pantry-friendly. Prep/assembly/cleanup time is ~30 minutes all told.
Ingredients
1.5 lb ground beef
1.5 lb loose Italian sausage
(If you ask, a butcher shop might grind the two together for you and save you even more work...)
Minced garlic
Chopped onion or onion powder
28-32 oz full fat ricotta
1 c shredded mozzarella
1 c shredded parmesan or provolone
3 eggs
1/2 c chopped fresh basil OR much dried basil (or mix of the two)*
Salt and pepper
2 jars of tomato & basil pasta sauce (24+ oz)
Lasagna noodles (I prefer DeCecco, and it seems like the nonnas hereabouts agree, because that's what sold out first when the pandemic kicked off)
Sliced burrata or cheese of your choice for melting on top at the end
9x13 deep dish (investigate the first time before cooking the noodles how many noodles to a layer!)
Heavy duty aluminum foil wide roll
Toothpicks
*I usually do either just dried or a mix of fresh and dried, and have been known to use a full standard supermarket spice container's worth.
Method
1. Brown the meat with the minced garlic and onion. Make sure the beef and sausage are well mixed so your lasagna will have both evenly distributed. Set aside, do not drain.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F. Put a roasting pan with some water in the bottom on a lower rack - this will catch any spillage or drips from your lasagna while it bakes.
3. Boil the water for your lasagna noodles. I cook mine, but not the full time - they're going to soak up plenty of liquid in the oven. Start the first layer of noodles cooking (I generally do two pots so I can alternate, and put the noodles in one layer at a time so they don't overcook. Do NOT put all the noodles in the pot at once - they will stick together.)
4. In a big mixing bowl, combine ricotta, shredded cheese, eggs, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
5. Open your sauce jars. (Yes, both of them. I promise it's easier this way. You're going to use it all.)
6. Have a large serving spoon ready for the meat and a large serving spoon for the ricotta mixture. Most large serving spoons won't fit into sauce jars, so just get a tablespoon for the sauce.
7. Position your deep dish so that you can get to the sauce, ricotta, meat, and lasagna noodles easily.
8. Start assembling the lasagna. You're aiming for three tiers, so mentally divide the meat and ricotta into thirds now - otherwise you're going to end up with one tier heavier than the other two. The layers go as follows:
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Make sure there are no naked noodles! There should be sauce over any noodle - don't leave any bits exposed that don't have sauce on them. That leads to noodles baked hard with no taste.
9. Use the foil and toothpicks to tent the lasagna.
10. Bake at 350 1.5-2 hours, until you can see the sauce start to thicken and the cheese browning a bit at the edges.
11. Remove the foil. Turn the oven up to 425F. Add the burrata or other cheese in a thin layer on top. Bake ~20 minutes until the top is lightly browned.
12. It has to cool for a few minutes when you take it out - no matter how delicious it looks, you can't slice into it immediately unless you want to a) burn your mouth and b) have some of the noodles try to escape.
Ingredients
1.5 lb ground beef
1.5 lb loose Italian sausage
(If you ask, a butcher shop might grind the two together for you and save you even more work...)
Minced garlic
Chopped onion or onion powder
28-32 oz full fat ricotta
1 c shredded mozzarella
1 c shredded parmesan or provolone
3 eggs
1/2 c chopped fresh basil OR much dried basil (or mix of the two)*
Salt and pepper
2 jars of tomato & basil pasta sauce (24+ oz)
Lasagna noodles (I prefer DeCecco, and it seems like the nonnas hereabouts agree, because that's what sold out first when the pandemic kicked off)
Sliced burrata or cheese of your choice for melting on top at the end
9x13 deep dish (investigate the first time before cooking the noodles how many noodles to a layer!)
Heavy duty aluminum foil wide roll
Toothpicks
*I usually do either just dried or a mix of fresh and dried, and have been known to use a full standard supermarket spice container's worth.
Method
1. Brown the meat with the minced garlic and onion. Make sure the beef and sausage are well mixed so your lasagna will have both evenly distributed. Set aside, do not drain.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F. Put a roasting pan with some water in the bottom on a lower rack - this will catch any spillage or drips from your lasagna while it bakes.
3. Boil the water for your lasagna noodles. I cook mine, but not the full time - they're going to soak up plenty of liquid in the oven. Start the first layer of noodles cooking (I generally do two pots so I can alternate, and put the noodles in one layer at a time so they don't overcook. Do NOT put all the noodles in the pot at once - they will stick together.)
4. In a big mixing bowl, combine ricotta, shredded cheese, eggs, basil, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
5. Open your sauce jars. (Yes, both of them. I promise it's easier this way. You're going to use it all.)
6. Have a large serving spoon ready for the meat and a large serving spoon for the ricotta mixture. Most large serving spoons won't fit into sauce jars, so just get a tablespoon for the sauce.
7. Position your deep dish so that you can get to the sauce, ricotta, meat, and lasagna noodles easily.
8. Start assembling the lasagna. You're aiming for three tiers, so mentally divide the meat and ricotta into thirds now - otherwise you're going to end up with one tier heavier than the other two. The layers go as follows:
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Meat
Cheese
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce
Make sure there are no naked noodles! There should be sauce over any noodle - don't leave any bits exposed that don't have sauce on them. That leads to noodles baked hard with no taste.
9. Use the foil and toothpicks to tent the lasagna.
10. Bake at 350 1.5-2 hours, until you can see the sauce start to thicken and the cheese browning a bit at the edges.
11. Remove the foil. Turn the oven up to 425F. Add the burrata or other cheese in a thin layer on top. Bake ~20 minutes until the top is lightly browned.
12. It has to cool for a few minutes when you take it out - no matter how delicious it looks, you can't slice into it immediately unless you want to a) burn your mouth and b) have some of the noodles try to escape.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-14 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 02:44 am (UTC)The assembly is the only even remotely tricky part, and that's really only due to trying to get everything evenly distributed.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 05:23 pm (UTC)Also: Thoughts on precooked noodles??
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 05:40 pm (UTC)When you say precooked, you mean you're going to cook them ahead of time, or 'oven ready'? The box instructions on the ones I use say it will work just fine 'oven ready' for wetter sauces, and I'm pretty sure there's enough liquid in this even without the meat that it should work. I'm just a big chicken and cook them a little to make sure! (The cooking doesn't actually add much to the time/effort - I start the water for them about the time I start getting everything else ready. I can dunk the first layer while mixing up the cheese bowl. After that, each set of noodles gets as much time as it takes me to assembly the layer before it. As soon as one layer of noodles comes out, I toss the next set in. None of them actually cook to 'eat right now' doneness.)
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 10:02 pm (UTC)Yes, I meant the oven-ready kind! I like a pretty al dente noodle, so perhaps I will risk it...but if that doesn't turn out, then I will try your method! Thanks for the tip on the timing--definitely something I would have messed up otherwise, so I appreciate it!
no subject
Date: 2022-02-15 10:27 pm (UTC)I thought on it some more, and I think I've landed on 'try 4 eggs not 5 the first time' - you don't want the cheese layer too liquidy, as even without the meat you're still liable to get some bubble-over/dripping.
Let me know how it goes with the oven-ready prep - like I said, I've always chickened out on trying it. I should probably be less cautious, but...