lasagna

This lasagna was delicious!

Here's roughly how I made it. Some of the amounts aren't listed because I have no idea how much I used. If you're feeding a big crowd or two people, you have to adjust the meat and cheese and portions anyway, no matter what I say. You also should always season to your taste not mine. Therefore, it's my firm belief that dinner recipes aren't to be followed to the letter. Use what you have, make it as large or small as you need, make it taste good to you. Tailor the dinner recipe, follow the baking recipe.

Guidelines (the method for this new lasagna recipe mostly came from Pardon My Crumbs)

mix up a ricotta cheese mixture (I used cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella on account of I didn't have any. I didn't have any fresh basil either so I used dried.) and pop in the fridge until you need it.

I also followed the idea of her onion/mushroom/spinach combo kinda closely except I used a handful of dried shitaki mushrooms instead, revitalized in hot water and roughly chopped, and I added my garlic here instead of with the meat. Remove the veggies and set aside in a bowl

add hamburger and bacon to your pan and cook thoroughly. Strain off fat.

add in this tomato sauce (which I made on Monday) and season if needed with salt & pepper and garlic powder. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes or until thickened.

9 lasagna noodles soaked in hot water until just pliable 

after forgetting about the noodles soaking in water (because I was too busy multitasking with other things), I sadly realized they were too water-logged to use and would have ruined everything if I had.

9 more lasagna noodles boiled for 11 minutes (until just about al dente, but not fully cooked), drained, and set aside to cool slightly.

Grate up some cheese (I ended up using an entire block of cheddar cheese -- yikes! At least I always buy the low fat versions of everything)

Have some parmasan cheese handy for sprinkling

Assembly

Spray an 8" X 14" pan (mostly whatever large pan you have) lightly with nonstick spray

Layer in this order:

• tomato meat sauce
• both cheeses
• 3 noodles
• ricotta
• veggies
• meat sauce
• cheeses
• 3 noodles
• ricotta
• veggies
• meat sauce
• cheeses
• 3 noodles
• meat sauce
• veggies
• any leftover ricotta
• make sure to have enough cheese leftover to cover the top pretty completely (you may have to grate some more like I did)

Just make sure you end with meat sauce and cheese so your noodles don't overcook and dry out in the oven. (You don't have to worry about having ricotta for the top, necessarily. It's more of a binder for the layers than anything else. Just don't freak out if you do.) 

Cover with foil and leave in the fridge until you're ready to bake it (I love lasagna cuz you can make it in the morning and get all your dishes done and have a nice relaxful day not worrying about when to start supper or what to make for supper. A pan of uncooked lasagna will probably freeze pretty good, too. I've just never done that cuz I don't have to and I don't have the freezer space for an entire pan anyway).

Or bake it right away! Heat oven to 350. Put lasagna in (still covered with foil) for about 45 minutes. Remove the cover and continue cooking another 10 minutes, just until the top is a little golden and bubbly. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving (doing so makes it easier to cut and serve).  I paired this with a delicious ceasar salad with homemade garlic croutons, but any salad will do (you could also add garlic bread if you've got a crowd and you're not sure one lasagna will feed them all).

We're having this again for supper tonight! Even with the meat paired down for two people, it makes a lot!