Tonight I gave a homemade lasagna recipe a try. The only thing I didn't make were the noodles, since they take so much special equipment. It was really fresh and full of flavor, so I would vote that it was completely worth the effort...it's only time consuming, not labor intensive. I even had a little sauce leftover, which I plan to freeze for a tortellini night later. The sauce was so tasty, I will be making it for spaghetti nights too! To round out the meal, I made caprese salad and garlic toast. It made for a really nice meal with plenty of leftovers for a busy week.
The recipe calls for sweet Italian sausage. I gave it a try, but will probably try spicy next time to give it an extra kick. The recipe also called for an additional 3/4 pound ground beef in the sauce to accompany the Italian sausage, but I opted to leave that out and add in some extra mozzarella to the final product.
Sauce
1 package sweet Italian turkey sausages, casings removed
1/2 cup onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
2 cans tomato paste (6 oz each)
2 cans tomato sauce (6.5 oz. each)
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. sugar
1.5 tsp. dried basil
0.5 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tbsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
In a large pot, cook sausage, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Add sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and parsley. Simmer on low, covered, for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.
Lasagna
Meat Sauce
9 lasagna noodles
16 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
3/4 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water.
While noodles are boiling, mix ricotta cheese with the egg 2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley, and 1/2 tsp. salt.
To assemble, spread 1.5 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Arrange 3 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with one third of the mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1.5 cups meat sauce over mozzarella and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and baked uncovered an additional 25 minutes.
Note: To keep foil from sticking, spray it with cooking spray before covering dish.
If you want to cut back on the carbs, you could substitute zucchini slices for the noddles:
ReplyDeleteSlice 4-5 medium-size zucchinis lengthwise into 3/4-inch-thick strips. Sprinkle Italian seasoning on the strips, place them in a single layer on a nonstick cookie sheet, and bake at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes. You want them firm, not crisp. Then simply make the lasagna as you normally would, replacing lasagna noodles with the baked zucchini.