2007 » November » 20

My First Lasagna

Posted November 20, 2007

While stumbling last week, I came across a recipe for the Best Lasagna Ever over on The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I read through the post, and not only did the lasagna look very good, it also looked easy. Since I’m taking things slowly over here (you know, let’s make sure we can successfully boil water before we attempt to make something incredibly complicated), easy is a very good thing. Even better, reading through the comments they were largely positive. So the thought formed in my mind… I could pick up all the ingredients and invite my mom and her husband over for dinner on Sunday. And just like that, I was committed.
You can read the original post, and the original recipe at the link above, or you can follow along with me here. I’m a cheater, so there are a few deviations here.

The Ingredients

Lasagna noodles, 1.5 lbs of ground beef, 1lb of Italian sausage, minced garlic, parsley flakes, dried basil, cottage cheese, 2 eggs (not pictured), parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese slices, whole tomatoes and tomato paste. And no, the amaretto in the background was not in the ingredient list.

Making Lasagna
The first step was to brown the 1.5 pounds of ground beef with the one pound of sausage, and 1/2 tsp. minced garlic. The original recipe called for Hot breakfast sausage, but I’m a wimp, so I went for Italian instead as it’s slightly less “Oh my goodness, my mouth’s on FIRE!” It also called for 2 cloves of garlic, minced, but I’m lazy and bought a jar of ready to use minced garlic instead. In the pan it went.

In the original, she begs everyone not to drain all of the fat off, for PETE’s sake, but I couldn’t help it. I’m usually a “rinser” so I resisted doing that before returning the meat to the pan. That has to count for something, doesn’t it? Right?
Well anyways, then it was time to continue making the meat sauce, so to my cooked meat, I added 28 oz. of whole tomatoes, 12 oz. of tomato paste, 2 tbs. parsley flakes, 2 tbs. dried basil, 1 tsp. salt.