Lasagna #MABDGA

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425.

2. If you're making your own pasta, good for you. That recipe will be in another post. You can buy fresh pasta sheets at Italian stores, or you can buy the dried stuff at the grocery. Either way, you'll be eating lasagna, and you'll be happy. If you're using the dried pasta, boil it until it's cooked al dente, or "to the tooth," or still a little hard in the middle. Strain and coat with oil immediately, so that it won't stick to itself and set it aside. If you're using fresh sheets, you don't need to boil them first: they are ready to use right out of the pasta machine or the package. My pasta secret is making it fresh, and using the recipe and method on this blog.

3. Prep your marinara. If you're making your own, good for you. If you're looking for a good marinara recipe, there's a great one on this site, and that is my sauce secret! If you're using meat sauce, you can skip the step about buying and browning your meat separately (because it's already in the sauce, and that is fine). You're going to want a few extra quarts to ladle over the top of your lasagna slices as you serve them. I like my lasagna swimming in marinara. Who doesn't.

4. Prep your ricotta blend. The secret here is that you're using three cheeses: In a large bowl, dump out the ricotta and mix with about 1.5 pounds of shredded mozzarella, your grated parmesan, the eggs, salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Hold a little chopped parsley aside for a final garnish on top of your baked lasagna.

   

5. Prep your meat layer: brown ground sausage and ground beef, drain off excess fat and set aside. My secret to this step is to always use more than one kind of meat. Whether you're using plain ground pork or sausage, or beef or veal, a combination is always a good idea. Don't forget to season your meat with salt, pepper and maybe even a little garlic powder, while you are browning it!

6. Compose your lasagna! First, lay a little sauce down into your pan. Then set down a layer of pasta sheets.

7. Next, add a layer of ground meat and cover with sauce.

   

8. Gently spread a layer of ricotta mixture on top.

9. Cover with pasta sheets and repeat. You can see that this pan is a bit too shallow to do many layers. I like a deeeeep pan that will allow you to do at least two complete meat-sauce-cheese-pasta layers. Do what your pan will allow.

10. When you have reached your last layer, make sure it's a pasta layer on top, cover ever-so-lightly with sauce, and then sprinkle on the remaining mozzarella and some parmesan if you have any left. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place into a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and it is bubbling. Mangia!