Lasagna
I think my lasagna is pretty darn epic. I think you will think so too!
My mom is where I get my very high standards for food. Mom is half Italian. Her father was the only sibling of his family born in the US. All of his brothers were born in north east Italy. This is the part of Italy where folks are known to have strong work ethic, and good organization skills. As they say, the further south you go folks are more about enjoying life...
This is not a recipe that was handed down to me. This is mostly because mom does not have a recipe. When I decided I needed to learn to make good lasagna. I called mom. I took notes, but there was a lot of "well some times I do it this way, but other times, I do it a different way." This is the classic Italian way of cooking. It is done by feel, and taste.
Note: Ghee is just another name for clarified butter.
If you don't have it, use butter, or olive oil. After you assemble the sauce you are going to taste it, and adjust it. Go easy on the salt. The cheese is going to bring alot of salt to the table... "Hey Mr. Böner, Why do you use canned tomatoes?" The tomatoes you buy off the shelf in the grocery store are bred to be handled. They often are not ripe, even if they are red. The tomatoes that are selected to go into cans are not going to handle being stored for long. This is why they are put in cans. I read something to this effect in a book once. It seemed reasonable, so I go with it....
I use the kind of lasagna pasta that does not need to be pre-boiled. You need (1) box for this recipe.
Lasagna is special
Lasagna is special, It is made for “The Big Holiday” (my birthday), Christmas, or some other special occasion. Because Lasagna is so special, I like to take a week to make it. On Tuesday night, I will make the sauce. Then, I will give it a night or two, in the refrigerator. Some magic happens overnight in the fridge. I will assemble the Lasagna on Thursday night. Then, back in the refrigerator for more magic to develop. Finally, I will bake off the lasagna on Saturday, or Sunday. Lasagna freezes well. Once it is assembled, it may be frozen until the date of the special occasion. Some folks like to use disposable aluminium Lasagna pans. They work well in the freezer…
Recipe:
-
Sauce
2 tbsp ghee or olive oil
10oz frozen diced onions, or 1 medium onion, diced
32oz (2 packages) Isernio’s mild Italian sausage
4 (14 grms) big cloves garlic, minced
Simple truth organic canned tomato products:
(2) 6oz paste
(2) 14.5oz diced, no salt added use juice in can, dump all of can contents into the pot
(1) 15oz sauce
4g fresh rosemary needles
2-3 leaves fresh sage
8g fresh basil chopped fine (or 1 teaspoon dried)
0.5 tsp cayenne
1 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon oregano
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon Morton K salt
Black pepper > 1 tablespoon 7 grms
-
Cheese Blend
0.5# boars head picante provolone
1# mozzarella + 0.25# for topping
4oz parmesan
1# ricotta
2 eggs
Preheat your bad ass, cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add ghee, butter, or olive oil. Sautè the onions, until they are as sexy, and golden, as a California Girl’s epidermis. Add your garlic, and cook until fragrant (1 minute). Move your onions, and garlic to to you stock pot, or dutch oven.
If you are a savage, you can cook all your sausage at once. However, if you want to put extra love into your lasagna. I recommend you cook your sausage in 3 or 4 batches. Smoosh it down into patties, then don’t mess with it until it develops a nice layer of crispy melanoidins. Then, brake it apart, and cook until done. Move it to the stock pot, or dutch oven as you finish your batches. Once you have all of your onions, and sausage in the dutch oven. Add the rosemary, sage, basil, cayenne, paprika, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, black pepper, and salt. Turn on the heat for a few minutes, and let those spices get to know the fat in that mixture. If there is some fond built up from your sautèing, deglaze with your favourite cooking liquid. just don’t over-do it…
Add your tomato products to the stock pot, or dutch oven, and simmer for 2 hours.
Put the pot of sauce in the refrigerator. Let some magic happen overnight, or a couple of days…
Mix the cheese filling
Combine all the grated cheese, and ricotta, with 2 eggs. Add 2-3 heaped table spoons of sauce. Mix the cheese into a paste with your hands. Squish it through your fingers, and make it homogeneous. (You washed your hands, right?)
Building the lasagna:
You will need to make five total layers. Visualise splitting the bowls of sauce, and cheese filling into fifths.
Layering: very light sauce on bottom, then pasta, then cheese, and then sauce. Then pasta, cheese, and sauce…. 5 layers…
I used to top it with grated parmesan, and some fresh basil leaves. These days I add 1/4 lb. of shredded, whole milk mozzarella too.
It is best to let the lasagna sit assembled in the refrigerator overnight, or for a couple days. To let the magic happen. Skip the basil, and mozzarella. Put in in the fridge for a day or 2. Or freeze. Add the basil and mozzarella on bake day.
Baking the Lasagna
I set my oven at 385°F to bake at 375°F. All ovens are a little different. Don’t rely on the digital thermostat. It is probably off. Buy an oven thermometer, and rely on it. Take your own notes, and figure out what set point you need on your oven, to get the actual oporating temperature. We want to bake the Lasagna at 375ºF
Bake it covered for 40 min. Then, uncover, and bake util the cheese is slightly browned, and the lasagna is bubbling around the edges. In my oven, that is another ~10 minutes. After baking, let the lasagna rest for 10 minites before cutting. This lets the cheeses congeal, so they don’t spill out of the slice, when you cut it.
When baking, cover the lasagna with foil. Don’t let the foil touch the lasagna. If you do it will pull some of the cheese off the top when you remove it. If needed you can make spacers out of rolled foil, and put them around the edges of the pan.
When the lasagna is ready to serve. Cut yourself a big ole slice. Then post it to Instagram, and #boner!
