Lasagna. It seems like such a simple dish that will result in many freezable meals (9 to be exact). Always looking for a way to have already-prepared lunch or dinner options, I decided this weekend was the time to conquer the classic Italian food. I mean, how much work can layering different ingredients be?
Three hours later, I ended up with this:
Not too shabby. Just a long process!
Ingredients for Lasagna:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for the lasagna
1 tablespoon each of dried: thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary and parsley
The tomato sauce takes a good hour itself, so start this before anything else. While making the sauce, leave the milk on the counter so it can reach room temperature. Also leave out the frozen spinach to thaw.
In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add cans of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and the rest of the spices (bay leaves through parsley). Simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and remove pot from heat.
Feel free to use just some store-bought sauce. I personally can’t do it. Who told all the sauce companies that sugar should be a main ingredient? Gross. So yeah, the 25% of me that is Italian absolutely cannot handle sauce out of a jar. I digress…
Next, to make the béchamel sauce, melt 5 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in another pot. When the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes.
um. “smooth”? yeah, I don’t know what happened
Gradually add in milk, whisking constantly to prevent any lumps. Continue to simmer and whisk over medium heat. Make sure the heat isn’t up too high; you don’t want the milk to burn! Stir until thick and creamy, about 10 minutes.
it should coat the back of a wooden spoon, like this
Remove from heat and add to tomato sauce. Stir until well combined. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
While the sauce is cooling, cook the lasagna according to the package directions. Lay lasagna pieces out individually on a tin foil so that they don’t stick together.
In a sauté pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When almost smoking, add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Break up large clumps to make sure all parts of the meat are browned, until there is no more pink meat. Remove from heat and drain any excess fat. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
In a medium sized bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
To assemble (in a lasagna pan):
line bottom with lasagna sheets
add 1/3 of bechamel sauce
add all of the ricotta mixture
add all of the spinach
another layer of pasta sheets
add all of the meat
add half of the mozzarella cheese (1 bag)
add another 1/3 of the bechamel sauce
one last layer of pasta sheets
add the last of the bechamel sauce
top with remaining mozzarella cheese
add Parmesan cheese and thin slices of 2 tbsp of butter
To cook, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the lasagna pan on top, cover with tin foil and place on the middle rack of the oven. Bake until the top is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes.
woo! finally done!
Allow to cool if you plan on putting into individual containers (as I did). I find it hard to believe that something with this much cheese, pasta, and sauce could honestly taste bad. But seeing how much not-so-good-for-you things went into this, I think I’d sub in some “less” bad ingredients next time (skim milk, partially skim cheese, low fat ricotta, ground turkey).
Although this was quite the task, I think it was totally worth it. I’ve already had this for lunch one day this week and have plenty more stored away in my freezer for future meals. Yum.
I try to bring my lunch into work at least four times a week, but sometimes I am just too exhausted at the end of a week day to think about and prepare a lunch for the next day. Soups in general are great for these days; you can make a huge batch on Saturday, freeze it in single portions, and then grab when on the run. Food and Wine had a “fast” soup recipe listed so I thought I’d try it out (most soups take at least an hour to prepare).
The original recipe is linked above. I made a few substitutions, based on what I already had in my house.
Ingredients:
7 cups diced tomatoes with their juice (two 28-ounce cans)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 /2 teaspoons dried sage
2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
2 cups water
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup orzo
2 cups drained and rinsed canned chickpeas (one 19-ounce can)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
First puree the tomatoes with their juice in a food processor or blender. Feel free to puree at much or as little as you want. If you like your soup a bit chunky, only pulse the blender a few times.
In a large pot (and I mean large– my Dutch Oven was almost too small!), heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The original recipe called for 1 whole onion. That seemed like quite a lot of onion for my tastes, so I used half of the onion in my ingredients photo.) Stir in garlic.
Add the pureed tomatoes, sage, broth, water and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and chickpeas. Bring the soup back to a boil.
Reduce the heat and partially cover, stirring occasionally.
Partially covered? Sure
Cook for 15 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Stir in the parsley, pepper, and grated Parmesan. Serve topped with an additional sprinkle of Parmesan.
Finished Dish
I was impressed with how quick this recipe was, maybe 35-45 minutes from start to finish. What made it even more manageable was during the down time (10 minute cooking of onion, waiting for it to boil, etc) I was able to clean up the mess I was making.
The soup was really tasty and deceptively fresh tasting (that parsley really helped!). If you like a little kick, I think a few drops of hot sauce during the final boiling stage would be a nice addition. If you don’t have and dried sage on hand, the recipe suggests substituting rosemary or marjoram.
This dish would be great to sop up with garlic bread or even a cheesy toast. I’m excited to have this for lunch some time next week!
VisitPhilly.com’s Philly Homegrown section recently posted fall recipes from local eateries in Philadelphia. All of them sounded amazing and I hope to try them all in the coming weeks, but my pumpkin obsession took priority. Metropolitan Bakery’s Pumpkin Walnut Muffins were calling me. I’ve adjusted the recipe a bit, but the general idea is still very much there.
The recipe made two dozen large muffins, or 4 dozen cupcake-sized muffins. Your friends and coworkers will like you a whole lot after you make this recipe!
