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Gift of Lasagna
I love it when other people cook for me. I was also surprised to find that I enjoyed cooking for other people too (well, once I started making things that were edible). There's something very nourishing and nurturing about it that I hadn't thought would appeal to me. I like hearing the compliments on how it tastes and I like it even more when someone polishes off what's on the plate and glances back at the kitchen, hopefully wondering if there's enough for seconds. Growing up, I had been such a tomboy that I paid little attention to cooking and thought of it as a chore or something that could be replaced by ordering takeout.
As long as I'm rambling, read the short story "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. It's a 30-page story in the collection of short stories called Cathedral if you want to read it in printed form. The final page makes me weep every time I read it. There's a line in there where the baker thinks, "It was better to be feeding people." That line's the first time I really thought about how I find it personally satisfying to share home-cooked food.
The other day a friend brought us some lasagna he had made. When he dropped it off, he apologized ahead of time saying he was disappointed that the sausage had had some gristle. I waved off his apologies since he's enough of a food snob that I don't think he would've shared it with us at all if he didn't think it tasted good. It tasted great and I didn't get any gristle in my piece. Gooey delightfulness with the perfect zing in his seasonings. So cheers to my friend and his lasagna and cheers to cooks everywhere!
My Friend's Lasagna
He says he cooks it up a little differently every time and doesn't really have a recipe. Here are the general steps for what he did this time around.
Cheese Mixture:
Ricotta cheese 3 cups
Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
Italian spices - in the cheese mixture (sorry - I just do it by feel)
(include oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, and maybe savory and marjoram)
Lasagna noodles (I actually use the no boil kind because it's easier)
Mozzarella cheese 16 oz (I slice it and layer it)
Lots of Garlic (minced) sauteed in olive oil (Mmmm Garlic)
A lot of sausage (cooked up beforehand)
Onions (caramelized in olive oil)
Mushrooms(sliced thin and sautéed in butter)
Jar of spaghetti sauce (used Classico)
Note: For the sauce, you can use a can of tomatoes and some tomato paste, or a jar and a half of tomatoes sauce, or make your own sauce and add some of that. I have a good sauce recipe but it's very time consuming. This time I used jar sauce. Just use a jar of classico sauce and you'll be good to go
thread at cooking
thread at food_porn
As long as I'm rambling, read the short story "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. It's a 30-page story in the collection of short stories called Cathedral if you want to read it in printed form. The final page makes me weep every time I read it. There's a line in there where the baker thinks, "It was better to be feeding people." That line's the first time I really thought about how I find it personally satisfying to share home-cooked food.
The other day a friend brought us some lasagna he had made. When he dropped it off, he apologized ahead of time saying he was disappointed that the sausage had had some gristle. I waved off his apologies since he's enough of a food snob that I don't think he would've shared it with us at all if he didn't think it tasted good. It tasted great and I didn't get any gristle in my piece. Gooey delightfulness with the perfect zing in his seasonings. So cheers to my friend and his lasagna and cheers to cooks everywhere!
My Friend's Lasagna
He says he cooks it up a little differently every time and doesn't really have a recipe. Here are the general steps for what he did this time around.
Cheese Mixture:
Ricotta cheese 3 cups
Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
Italian spices - in the cheese mixture (sorry - I just do it by feel)
(include oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, and maybe savory and marjoram)
Lasagna noodles (I actually use the no boil kind because it's easier)
Mozzarella cheese 16 oz (I slice it and layer it)
Lots of Garlic (minced) sauteed in olive oil (Mmmm Garlic)
A lot of sausage (cooked up beforehand)
Onions (caramelized in olive oil)
Mushrooms(sliced thin and sautéed in butter)
Jar of spaghetti sauce (used Classico)
Note: For the sauce, you can use a can of tomatoes and some tomato paste, or a jar and a half of tomatoes sauce, or make your own sauce and add some of that. I have a good sauce recipe but it's very time consuming. This time I used jar sauce. Just use a jar of classico sauce and you'll be good to go
- Coat the 13x9x2-inch baking dish or lasagna pan with spray-on cooking spray
- Place a layer of noodles in bottom of a pan
- Cover with a layer of mozzarella cheese then spoon half of the ricotta mixture over the mozzarella.
- Spoon a layer of a sausage over the cheese
- Spread the onions and mushrooms evenly across the top of the sausage layer by hand.
- Cover with tomato sauce.
- Sprinkle half of the minced garlic over the sauce, Jackson Pollock-style.
- Repeat layers
- Cover it up and bake it for 50 minutes. [I assume he meant cover it with tin foil.]
thread at cooking
thread at food_porn