Several obstacles, the ground beef which is a meat never on my radar, or any other beef for that matter. The mozzarella which is a summer thing here, eaten with fresh farm tomatoes. Not lasagna weather. The ricotta, ruhgahda as the younger Mrs Soprano used to say it, just never in my kitchen. The tomato sauce likewise. The only things I had were the noodles, sausage and tomato paste.
And then there's the cost, more than Christmas dinner when you add it up.
The actual cooking is okay if you have time. Which I did today. And realized that my hot Italian turkey sausages, the kind you can skin, to use the meat, would work fine. And it went from there. First finding a pan the right size. Why do recipes specify the size in inches instead of capacity, since that's the measurement incised into the pan? So the recipe also involved finding a ruler.
Shopping trip. Rationalizing that it's only once every few years, as I see the checkout totals. I went to an expensive store, only the best, since it's only once every few years.
A lot of prep, boiling the pasta, and cooking on the stove, chopping and sauteing, mixing, long simmering of the sauce, then assembly, then baking, and finally it emerged smelling pretty good. And then you have to wait for it to be ready to cut.
This is dinner today, then a series of future meals, including a couple of meals for handsome Son's freezer. And there's spare ricotta, must find recipes, and spare tomato sauce, in the freezer. And it's only once every few years.
And then I found another half box of lasagna noodles, arghghg.
But here comes the cook's first taste. This really shouldn't wait a few years before I make it again. It's waaaaaay good.
I've never made lasagna with meat but used to make it often with spinach. And cottage cheese, before I had ever heard of ricotta. And the way I've made it since I was a teenager does not require precooking the pasta. Crikey, now I'm wondering why I haven't been making it once a week for the past couple of decades! Although in recent years I'm leaning away from nightshades...maybe I'll try making it with a white sauce. And cheese. Did I mention I've always put sharp cheddar cheese in my spinach and cottage cheese lasagna? LOL. I'll bet a lot of folks would not consider mine to be lasagna at all!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as if you are on the way to mac 'n cheese. Maybe a recipe??
ReplyDeleteAnd you may have answered your own question as to why it's rare around there: you keep hiding the lasagna noodles.
ReplyDeleteIt looks wonderful, I can almost taste it from here.
I can't seem to remember how few noodles you need for lasagna, and how they don't get used up. I know people make veggie lasagna and seafood lasagna, but I live in Italian country, where baked ziti is a rite, and the meaty lasagna is authentic. So I felt obligated. Dang it was good. Like that "rustic" apple tart, which took hours but was wonderful, unlikely to happen again real soon.
DeleteLooks delicious! I seldom make it, like you, because it is expensive and makes so much! But I sure love it.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about the expense until I did the shopping. You think oh, pasta, economical! Noooo. But it's so good.
DeleteI agree that it does take awhile to make but the results are so worth it! It might be expensive in some ways, but when you figure how many meals you get out of it, the cost isn't that much. Now you have me craving it!
ReplyDeleteI think I've done that to a few people! Once you see it on the plate suddenly it seems like a good idea
ReplyDelete