Lasagna My Way

I love lasagna.

Sort of...  We will get to that in a minute....

Lasagna is a heavenly concoction of pasta 'ribbons' layered with cheeses, meats, sauces and even veggies.  Lasagna is versatile. It can be made ahead and frozen either before or after baking. It can be meat all the way or a veggie wonder...

Meat Options Include:

• Ground
• beef
• pork
• chicken
• turkey
• sausage
• italian
• hot/spicy
• chicken breast

Sauce Options Include:

• bechamel
• white sauce
• great with veggie lasagna
• marinara
• very basic
• arrabbiata
• spicy sauce
• bolognese
• meat sauce would be good with layers of diced tomatoes and cheese
• vodka sauce
• Marinara with cream and vodka added

Veggie Options Include:

• carrot
• cauliflower
• mushrooms
• broccoli
• bell pepper

Cheese options is where my only 'problem' with lasagna comes in. I USUALLY do not like lasagna prepared by anyone besides ME....  It isn't that mine is better mind you...  It is just that I am not big on ricotta or cottage cheese (I think it is the texture, texture, texture) as an ingredient in those yummy layers Unfortunately for me, those cheeses seem to be VERY prevalent in lasagna that I have run into...

I use mozzarella (I can barely spell it), parmesan (I have trouble with spelling that one as well), and/or cheddar (I can speeel that one) in my lasagna layers. Period. The end.

You can make the sauce "from scratch", be "time frugal" like I have to be lately and use the Cheater Sketti recipe, or be super-lazy (again as I have felt lately) and use can/jar pasta sauce of choice - straight up - no adjustment or thought needed.

There are tons of lasagna recipes, so I will not get crazy here...  This is what I do...

Ingredients:

• prepare sauce of choice (see lazy option above)
• cook 2 pounds ground meat
• 1 package of:
• mozzarella and/or
• cheddar and/or
• parmesan (still cannot spell it on first try)
• 1 can petite diced maters
• lasagna noodes

Pre-heat oven to 350f degrees.

In a large pan of water (drizzled with olive oil), I partially cook plain old pasta noodles - tougher than that there al dente business - because I let the oven do part of that for me. Thoroughly cooked noodles tear eoo easily (in my opinion). I let them sit on a plate to cool a short bit. I no like to burn da fingurz...

Cook up ground beef well.

Grease disposable bread loaf pans (or use non-stick - but I steal grease them). Use any pan you wish. I just do not like tons of leftovers myself sometimes.

oh, and I say PAN(S) in plural because I freeze a few pans. It is just as easy to make 4 small pans as it is 1.

Open sauce can (in my case lately) and add water to it. There is no secret measure, I just add some water so the sauce goes further and the extra moisture helps finish cooking the pasta noodles.

Just cover bottom of pan with a little sauce, and toss in a few table spoons meat. (This keeps bottom layer of pasta from sticking to pan so much).
Add layer of "lasagne" (singular for "layer" - I think).
Alternate layers of cheese with layers of meat/sauce with layers of diced maters/sauce - AT WILL.
Top the lasagna with a layer of pasta and spread a little sauce on it.
Seal with aluminum foil.

At this point I seal up my spare pans of lasagna with plastic wrap real well and put in freezer for baking later.

I bake what I want to eat in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes.
Remove, from oven, remove foil, add a little sauce to top if you have any left, sprinkle generously with parmesan.  Place back in oven and bake additional 3-5, or so, minutes to melt cheese.

I use a spatula to 'cut' the lasagna.

Be happy my friend........

Satisfaction

That's right......

Yessssssss!!!

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh...!!!

Live long and prosper....

Spaghetti Squash

I do like Spaghetti Squash. It is easy to cook and tastes like light pasta under any number of sauces!  OK – so it is healthy-ish as well… My fat arse has nothing to do with this post…………..

Source

Much…………

This squash comes out in shreds/fibers like angel hair pasta. I ALWAYS serve it with meat sauce because that is what I like. Other folks say butter or olive oil with herbs. Pretty much anything you serve over pasta goes with this ‘pasta substitute”. This veggie makes a great ‘side-dish’ or you can use it as a substitute in dishes requiring thin pasta. Think outside the box. Asian, Italian, whatever you want!

Spagetti Squash hits the stores in the fall (or grow it yourself like I am ATTEMPTING this year).  It is considered a “Winter Squash” so it will “keep” for a while.  A whole fresh squash will keep approximately 1-2 months on the counter and 1-3 months in a refrigerator.



I have read where you can cook this bad boy using:

• a microwave (which I am not into and you can read that business here)
• a slow cooker
• boiling
• or roasting

I roast in a moist oven.

Preheat oven to 375f.

This is just a post on how “I” do this.  There are other ways that you might find more useful for your situation.

• I cut the squash in half length-wise.  Make sure you have a very sharp, rather large knife for this task. Be careful.
• Scoop out the seeds and either discard seeds or save them, clean them and roast them to eat!
• Place cut halves, cut side down, in a heavy baking dish (9”x13”-ish) and pour a half cup, or so, of water over them. Cook until “just tender” – not mush.  This should be about 30-35 minutes if you preheated your oven proper-like.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit.  You will need to handle the halves so be prepared with oven mitts or some other insulator.
• Rake a fork back and forth across the “meat” of the squash.  This will create/loosed the strands – and you will see why they call this “Spaghetti Squash”.
• Serve up with your favorite sauce!

Cooked/prepared Spaghetti Squash can be frozen for extended periods of time. Reheating it is as simple as microwaving or dropping in boiling water for a bit…