Garfield Was Onto Something!

Today’s Menu: Lasagna

Call me Garfield.  I absolutely love lasagna!  Aside from it being so tasty, it’s also quite versatile and can be made in a number of ways, using different ingredients to suit even your pickiest eaters.  From the most basic noodles, sauce and cheese, to a more sophisticated eggplant lasagna for those on low carbohydrate diets, this dish is a great one to have on hand whenever you need a tasty dish that can feed a crowd and is simple to make.

Now, I admit, I’m not a puritan when it comes to my lasagna dish, and by no means am I saying that you need to follow my recipe to a T.  I consider my lasagna recipe a method more than anything else.  Play around with your sauce by adding or taking away ingredients, mix up your cheeses (cottage cheese, or ricotta), and change up your noodles.  This is a great chance to experiment and come up with a dish that works well for you and for whomever you may be cooking for.

The recipe that I stick with has been passed on to me by my mother, and has only been tweaked mildly with the addition of more cheese.  And, once again, there’s not a lot in the way of measuring, and is all done to taste.  Here’s the recipe:

For The Sauce:
•    2lbs lean ground beef
•    1lb ground Italian sausage
•    2 tbsp oil
•    3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
•    1 medium sized onion, chopped fine
•    Small pinch of salt, and pepper
•    1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
•    1 can (680ml) tomato sauce
•    2 tsp dried oregano
•    2 tsp dried basil

For the Lasagna:
•    1 box no bake lasagna noodles (this part is important, as the noodles are not boiled before preparing.  I happen to like Unico’s no boil spinach lasagna noodles)
•    2 medium sized containers cottage cheese
•    ½ to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•    2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, or you can use the three cheese blends found at your grocery store

For The Sauce:
Iin a large pot (I like using my Dutch oven or pasta pot), over medium heat, add onion and garlic to the oil, and cook until soft, but no colour.  Add in the ground beef, sausage salt and pepper, and cook until ground beef and sausage have browned.  Once the ground beef and sausage has cooked, drain off fat and put pot back onto stove.  Add in the drained tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, and basil.  Stir to combine and let simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes until sauce is nice and thick.

For Lasagna:
In a glass lasagna pan that has been sprayed with Pam or other cooking spray, add 1/3 of the sauce, and top with noodles.  For your second layer, add 1/3 of sauce mixture, and top with cottage cheese, and top cottage cheese with ¼ cup parmesan cheese and top with noodles.  For your third layer, top with remaining sauce mixture, parmesan and cover with shredded cheese mixture.  Cover with tin foil, and bake in a preheated 375F oven for one hour.  (Side note: the lasagna will spill out onto your oven, so I highly recommend protecting the bottom of your oven with an oven tray protector just for easy cleanup.)

After one hour, remove tin foil and let bake for an additional 10 minutes until cheese is nice and bubbly.  Remove from oven and let sit for about 10 minutes.  Cut into equal sized pieces and serve alongside a tasty salad, and some garlic bread.

Happy Eating!