One of the most comforting things to me is a big bowl of pasta. Ok..let’s be real, I just love pasta. But cheesy, meaty layers of pasta, baked until bubbly perfection, what’s not to love?
My best memory to this day, and the best lasagna I ever had, was my Zia Geraldina’s. Being Napolitan, she added chopped hard boiled eggs (I know, sounds strange, but Italians for some reason love adding hard boiled eggs to dishes). And just the way she cooked it. It had a crunchy, cheesy top, it was layered to perfection, and she always cut into it at the perfect time. If you cut into it too early, it’s a hot mess (literally). I have yet to add hard boiled eggs to my version though – I’ll admit, every time I make it I always forget! I think because it’s just not a traditional ingredient you’d think to add.
What I love about this dish also, it’s very customizable. If you’re gluten free you can use thinly sliced vegetables instead of noodles. You can omit the meat in the sauce if you’re vegetarian. You can add chopped sauteed spinach to get your greens, you can even make a butternut squash version in the fall! The possibilities are endless, so follow this recipe or make it your own!
Meat Lasagna
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
Ingredients
- MEAT SAUCE:
- 4 Italian sausage links sweet or hot, I used sweet
- 1 lb. of chopped meat 80/20 mix
- 1 small white onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1/4 cup of dry red wine
- 2 jars of tomato sauce (or 2 28 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes)
- Fresh basil and fresh parsley
- Salt & pepper
- LASAGNA:
- 2-3 cups of meat sauce (see recipe)
- 1 box of lasagna noodles
- 1.5 cups of Pecorino or Parmesan
- 2 cups of shredded Mozzarella
- 1.5 cups of fresh Ricotta
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Meat Sauce:
- Slice the sausage and remove meat from the casing. Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a heavy bottom pot. Once it starts to shimmer, add the sausage and chopped meat, breaking up the meat to small bits. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Once it’s about three quarters of the way cooked, where you can still see some pink, add in the onions and garlic. Cook thoroughly until the meat is fully browned (no longer any pink), and the onions and garlic are translucent. Cook another few minutes, until most of the liquid from the meat has dissolved. Add in the wine to deglaze the pot. Cook down the wine for a few minutes. The important part of a meat sauce like this, is to not rush each step. You want to fully develop each layer of flavor.
- Once the wine is cooked out, add in your tomato paste and make sure it coats all of the meat. Taste the meat to make sure it’s seasoned correctly, and adjust if needed. Add in two jars or cans of tomatoes, and stir all ingredients together. (If you are using whole tomatoes, you may want to break up the tomatoes in a bowl first before adding to the meat). Rough chop the basil and parsley, and add into the sauce.
- Bring the sauce to a boil, and then reduce to low and let sit for about an hour. Half way through, taste the sauce to adjust any seasoning (salt and pepper if needed).
- Once your sauce is ready, bring another pot of water to boil. Once boiling, season with salt and add in lasagna noodles. Cook to a minute shy of al dente (since they will cook in the oven). Drain, drizzle with some olive oil to make sure each noodle is coated, and leave in the colander until use.
- Assemble:
- Create your assembly line: sauce, noodles, more sauce, ricotta, Pecorino, mozzarella. And let’s start to build! This is really a preference, if you like your lasagna cheesy, add more cheese. If you like it less cheesy and more saucy, add in more sauce and less cheese.
- In your Pyrex dish or aluminum pan, drizzle some olive oil, and put about 1/4 cup of the sauce as the first layer. Next, layer your noodles either horizontally or vertically, cutting the noodles to fit the dish if needed. More sauce (enough to cover the noodles), dollops of ricotta, Pecorino, and mozzarella. Next layer, if you went vertical with your noodles, now go horizontal. Continue for 3 layers. You may have some extra noodles leftover, so I just doubled up on the noodles on that last round.
- With the last layer, make sure to really get every inch covered with sauce and cheese. Drizzle some olive oil and cover with aluminum foil. It can sit room temp until ready to bake. If you’re making the following day, now’s the time to put in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the lasagna in the oven, covered, for about half hour. After half hour, remove the aluminum foil, and bake another 10 minutes. If you like your lasagna crunchy (which I do), turn the broiler on and let the cheese on top bubble and get crunchy. Make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn!
- Once it’s cooked to your liking, remove from the oven and let it sit about ten minutes. In the meantime, heat up some of the sauce in a small sauce pan.
- Cut the lasagna in 12 pieces, garnish with extra sauce and Pecorino or Parmesan!
