Sunday nights around our house are usually spent together over a late supper and HBO’s Trueblood. My eleven year old daughter, Skyler and I first began watching Trueblood back in season one and it wasn’t long before we both were obsessed. Now, my entire family and “extended family” gather together on Sunday nights for our latest fix. Our living room is packed with the five of us, Taylor, my sons’ friend that lives with us, and a couple more of their friends that are like family as well. Our lives are very hectic with three teen boys and an eleven year old girl in the house, but tonight is the one night we all sit down together over delicious food and our favorite show on television.
There has been a break in the weather here in Iowa; for the past week and an a half heat indexes have soared well into the 100’s. Needless to say, last night was the first night I dared to use the oven as our old Victorian home only has a/c in the bedrooms. No central air has been a nightmare! With the cooling of thunderstorms, today I will bake bread, make my favorite lasagna and with all the fresh veggies in my fridge, a salad will be the perfect side for this meal.
Lasagna has been a staple in my household since I was a child. I first learned by watching my mother, who by the way is where I learned everything I know, and over the years I have made her recipe my own by adding a whole lot of ingredients she refuses to every use.
I start with the sauce, sauté onions, mushrooms, garlic and a handful of diced green peppers. I then add hamburger and Italian sausage. Once the ground meats brown; add tomato sauce, tomato paste and seasonings, which consist of Italian seasoning, basil, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. I make everything to taste, so try adding a little at a time for your family’s own flavor. Avoid over salting, but if you do, a teaspoon of sugar at a time should bring it back to edible.
Once the sauce is done, it’s easy street from there. Cook your lasagna noodles, once they are done I like to run a bit of cold water over them so I can handle easily. In a small bowl, mix 2 eggs, cottage cheese, a dab of ricotta, and a cup of the Italian cheese mixture consisting of mozzarella, parmesan, Romano, and Asiago, then start building your masterpiece.
Spray your deep baking dish with non-stick spray and put a thin layer of sauce in the bottom, a layer of noodle, a layer of Italian cheeses, then do it again, except the second time around be more liberal with the sauce and instead of the cheese mixture, replace it with the egg and cheese mixture. From there, start with a layer of noodle then cheese, a layer of sauce, noodle, cheese. Keep repeating until you only have room for 2 more layers. The top two layers should be sauce and cheese, if you put noodle then cheese as your top layer, your noodles with bake crispy and make it almost impossible to cut.
Once you have built your lasagna you can refrigerate or freeze for a later time. I will be baking mine immediately at 350 degrees until the cheese on top begins to turn golden brown. Should take between 30-45 minutes, however if you put it in the fridge for a couple hours, it may take longer than that to cook all the way through, so for the first 30 minutes, cover with tinfoil and then remove and bake until the cheese begins to turn golden brown.
The key to serving lasagna is to let it rest for at least 15 minutes after you bake it, if you try to serves this as soon as it comes out of the oven, it will slip and slide all over, then fall into a disgusting looking pile on your plate. It will taste fantastic, but will look nothing like what you spent all your time building. Be patient! Let it rest!
I always make my own Italian bread, but it’s really what I do with it after it has cooled that makes this delicious side. Slice your loaf of Italian or French bread at a slight angle, butter the bottoms and place on a cookie sheet. In a small bowl mix mayo, shredded mozzarella, Asiago, and Colby Jack cheese, garlic powder to taste and spread over your sliced bread. Top with a sprinkle of basil and parsley then bake at 350 degrees until cheese is bubbly and beginning to turn brown. For mayonnaise haters out there, I have a family of picky eaters; they like Miracle Whip, not mayo and they love this bread. You don’t even really know it’s there, so give this a try, you might be pleasantly surprised!
Gotta get busy, getting a late start on this one today!
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