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16 October 2011

Super-Easy No Pre-Cook Lasagna

Serves 8-12 (depending on how you cut the slices)
Prep: about 15-20 minutes
Cook time: about 30-40 minutes (please alter the time based on your oven)

Ingredients
Lasagna pasta, raw (is that the right word for pasta that is not cooked?)
Italian sausages, about 5-6
Ricotta cheese, 15 ounces
Mozzarella cheese, about 3/4 cup
Parmesan cheese, about 1/2 cup
Your favorite tomato sauce
3 eggs
Oregano
Basil
Salt and pepper for taste


Optional ingredients
Texas Pete Hot Sauce
Mushrooms

This is a no pre-cook noodle recipe -- which makes it even better because there's not an extra step!  Yay!

Steps
(1) Cut up the sausage and cook it on the stove.  I added a little of olive oil.

(2) Meanwhile, mix the cheeses, the seasonings, and the eggs in a large bowl.

(3) When your sausage is cooked, put it in a food processor/blender.  Optional: add Texas Pete (or any hot sauce really) to the sausage to increase the spiciness and flavor if your hungry eaters prefer it.  I didn't over do it, I had subtle spiciness just to add a nice flavor to the dish.

(4) Since this a no pre-cook noodle recipe, you need to add lots of extra sauce to add moisture to the noodles while it's in the oven.  I added about 1/4 inch of sauce to the bottom of the pan before added the layers. 

(5) Then, add the layers: lasagna noodles (as many fit in your pan), cheese mixture, sausage.  I added just a small layer of mushrooms (A. Because I had to use them, B. Because I love mushrooms, and C. I like to see what I can get away with when cooking).  Since it was a delicious little addition (even according to Duncan) and because traditional recipes can call for additions like mushrooms and spinach, I highly recommended you add a few mushrooms (unless you don't do mushrooms, of course!).

(6) Again, because this is a no pre-cook noodle recipe, you have to drown your lasagna in sauce, put on some tin foil to help the steam cook the noodles, and then turn up the heat!  I baked the lasagna at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.  I highly suggest doing it for a little less time: maybe 35 minutes (depending on your oven, mine is really effective).  Check the top noodles before deciding if the lasagna is done.  If they are perfect, I would bet the dish is done or really-near-done.

(7) Enjoy!  

Voila, the lasagna was delicious.  And I seriously am the toughest critic when it comes to lasagna.  Duncan loved it, I loved it.  He said it's definitely one for the recipe books.  Let me know what you think and what you might suggest! :)

There are only a few things in this world that I do not eat and lasagna is one of them.  The only time I even eat lasagna is if it's proper etiquette, other than that, I don't even dare.  Unfortunately, however, it is Duncan's favorite meal.  So, I figured eventually I would have to suck it up and hopefully find a recipe we both could agree on.  One day, while eating manicotti, I discovered what it is about lasagna that I don't like: the ground beef.  

Yesterday, I made lasagna and I took what I liked from about four recipes (hey, they are mostly the same!), I did not use ground beef (did you know traditional lasagnas don't call for meat?), and made this incredibly easy (apparently lasagna is really hard to make and takes awhile?) and delicious lasagna.  

EDIT: this is slightly embarrassing!  But there apparently exists italian sausage that is already ground out of the casing.  I had no idea because I always cook with Italian sausage inside of the casing!!  My mom informed me that the former does, in fact, exist in this world.... Fortunately, that just makes this recipe SO much easier!  Yay! -- I'll definitely be doing that next time.....

EDIT 2: It tastes so much better when you do the extra work! But it's up to you!

Buon appetito!


1 comment:

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