My 13 year old niece Brooke has recently developed an interest in cooking. So recently she spent a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen with her Uncle Bob. Together they found recipes, shopped and prepared two pans of "The World's Best Lasagna" along with a yummy bundt cake, garlic bread and salad.
They went to allrecipes.com to find their 5 star recipe. This has become Bob's favorite go to place whenever he wants to find a new dish to prepare. He only goes with recipes that have received hundreds of 5 star reviews. This plan seems to be working because he hasn't made any duds so far. Occasionally we tweak the recipe to suit our likes. In this lasagna recipe we eliminated the fennel(yuck) and cut the salt in half.
Here is the recipe as they made it:
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.
It was fabulous. Here Brooke is showing off the cake she made for everyone.
She is wearing the apron her Aunt Megan and Uncle Bob gave her for Christmas. She looks like she should have her own Food Network show. "Cookin in the kitchen with Uncle Bob"
Hey Michael....What did you think of the meal your sister made for all of us???
And you Brooke, what do you think of your meal??
Ok so this was my semi-successful first attempt at using the lasso tool to create some photo fun. Maybe I should work on learning how to scale the heads to fit the body, although that might not look as funny!!! Good times.
Recent Comments