Lasagna

Who doesn't have a favorite lasagna recipe? Here is mine. Now, I should tell you up front that I have an extremely particular way I make it (hello? OCD!!!) and for me, it just doesn't taste the same otherwise. Some of my recipes are loosey goosey in parts but this is not one of those. Over the years, it has really turned into a collaborative recipe so I need to give some credit to two ladies who contributed two separate parts of the recipe. First, my mother in law Carol who gave me a simpler sauce base with which to build on and Second, Marilyn Raefield. While dating her son in high school I tasted her spaghetti one night and heard angels sing! Thanks to her for contributing this sauces signature flavor which, I add to just about all my red sauces. Muwaaah!

My lasagna begins at least 1 day ahead by making the sauce. It must sit at least overnight, but not more than about 4 days in the frig or else it just won't work (ocd...). It must sit overnight because the flavors need to marry together for it to have the richness. There is just something magical which happens in the pot during the night...beats me. Don't argue, just do it.

Sauce:

• 2- 28oz cans of whole tomatoes
• 1/2 of an onion
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 lb meat of your choice. I use ground turkey.
• pinch of sugar
• Some olive oil for frying the meat
• 3-4 tbl of Italian seasoning ish....in my opinion you can't have too much. I use Durkee Spicy Pasta Seasoning (purchased on the Internet from the Durkee website). Key ingredient.
• A 3 count pour of Burgundy wine. I buy the super cheap stuff and only use it for sauce. If you drink Burgundy wine...use that. Burgandy..not just any wine. Key ingredient.

Brown meat in a stockpot. While that is browning, put the tomatoes and onion in batches in a blender and blend until the tomatoes are broken up to your liking and the onion in sufficiently munched up. Chris HATES onion. I blend mine until the onion disappears. I ask you, how can you make sauce without onion? You can't. When the meat is browned add the garlic and tomato mixture. Add Italian seasoning and simmer partially covered for about an hour. Add wine and simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes more uncovered. Add sugar, cool and put in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day......you will need:

1 package of lasagna noodles (the regular boil em up kind). I don't trust the no boil kind.
Deep baking dish. Needs to have deep sides so the lasagna won't dry out while cooking.

1-2 cup package of Shredded mozzarella cheese.

Grated (not shredded!!) Parmesan cheese. About a cup or so. You want grated because it helps to soak up some of the liquid of the sauce. Nobody wants a sauce that runs all over the plate.

Ok..so here goes (from memory):

Take the sauce out of the refrigerator and heat it up slowly on the stove. You want the sauce to be hot when you assemble the lasagna.Boil the noodles in salted water for about 7-8 minutes. Key thing here...you want to cook them just undercooked. Why? Because when you add the sauce and bake it the noodles naturally absorb some of the sauce and if you cook them all the way they will be overcooked and mushy. Yuck!When the noodles are done, dump them in a strainer and run cold water over them to stop the cooking. Then, (and this may sound nuts..but it is how I do it so there you go) lay each noodle on paper towel or dish towels or something so they can dry. I am a freak about moisture in the lasagna...in case you didn't pick up on it earlier.

To assemble the lasagna:

Put enough sauce in the bottom of the pan to just coat it (you don't want the noodles to stick to the pan). Put a layer of noodles on top, more sauce, sprinkle Parmesan cheese then sprinkle mozzarella. Then another layer of noodles and do it all over until you are left with a layer of sauce and the cheeses on top. This all depends on how deep your dish is (the amount of layers).

Bake covered for 30-35 minutes in a 350 oven then uncover and bake about 10 minutes longer or until it is bubbly and the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Now. Here is another Jannell OCD step. You must do 1 of two things now:

1. Let it rest for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes that isn't even long enough.

2. Let it cool and then refrigerate for the next day.

Reason?

Because of the whole runny lasagna thing. It's saucy and juicy. By letting it rest the theory is that the noodles will continue to absorb sauce and it will set. Reality - I have YET to have that happen to my satisfaction. I, personally, make it ahead and heat it up as leftovers another day. It is nice and set and you don't get a runny mess all over the place.

You may need to play around with the amount of sauce to cheese etc ratio because I have noticed that depending on how the sauce turns out..I either need to add more or less so it isn't dry the next day. You just have to play with it. I hate doing it too..but it's never the same twice for me. Feel free to add more cheese or less. To me, that really doesn't matter as much as the drying of the noodles and the sauce sitting overnight. It's just a good, no frills lasagna recipe but it is very frilly on comfort :)

Now, go make lasagna!