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Lasagne
Layers of Love - Luscious Homemade Lasagna  I'll admit it, this version is a bit over the top. I make it very rarely for a number of reasons, beginning with - it's way over the top. Six, seven types of cheese, five meats, two tomato varieties, mushrooms, onions and sometimes, the kitchen sink. Yes, lasagna can be many things. If I make lasagna during tomato season, the sauce is fresh and there might be spinach and shredded zucchini in there. In the off season, I'll use canned diced Italian style and canned diced with sweet onions, fire roasted or plain. Regular, fresh, or whole wheat noodles, boil or bake noodles. All meat, vegetarian, omnivore, ricotta or cottage cheese... if it holds still long enough, toss it in. The only constant is cheese, and plenty of it. Lasagna is a family style dish that every family (that I know of) adores. We all have our favorite family recipes and they are all the BEST. This is not my traditional special occasion recipe because the tomatoes were not home grown, I didn't make the noodles, make ricotta or grind the meats. Still, it was darned good. To begin, gather your ingredients together.  Meat: About 8 oz of each, quality hamburger, County pork sausage, sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage and diced ends and pieces of coppa Cheese: For the layers, grated; Mozzarella, extra sharp cheddar, Romano - about 8-10 oz each More Cheese: 16 oz ricotta or small curd whole milk cottage cheese, for spooning on layers Just a little more cheese: For the very top, 2 oz each, grated Parmesan and Asiago Sour cream: 1 cup, to blend with the ricotta/cottage cheese Tomato sauce: 2-3 pounds of diced meaty (thick fleshed, less juice) tomatoes Veggies: 2 cups small Crimini mushrooms, quartered, one large yellow onion, diced, 6 cloves garlic, large, minced Noodles: 1 box whole wheat lasagna, cooked to very, very al dente. Wine: 1-2 cups of good red table wine. Depending on how long you cook your sauce, you may need 2 cups to thin it out a bit. If you only use 1 cup you can always sip the other. Olive oil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, rosemary, parsley, whatever you like - to taste Using a large sauce pot, heat a couple of tablespoons olive oil to shimmer, add onions, stir, add garlic, sweat it all out a bit. Toss in mushrooms, cook about 3 minutes, add meats in batches and cook to break meat up and combine. Stir and cook 10 minutes or until browned. Remove the pot from the heat and take a look in the bottom. How much fat has accumulated? If it looks like 2-3 tablespoons, leave it be. More, spoon some off, less, add olive oil. Return to heat and add tomatoes, fresh or canned. If fresh, sweat them out and stirr often unti the juices have rendered out. For canned, cook until the meat has broken up and the ingredients are nicely combined. Add wine, seasoning. Cook on simmer at least 2 hours, 3 if using fresh tomatoes. Add wine if needed and cook another 15-20 minutes. Layer construction: Noodles, meat sauce, ricotta mix, grated cheeses. Repeat to the last layer, which will be noodles and sauce - you'll reserve the Asiago/Parmesan mix for the final step. Cover with foil - tightly - and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove foil, add the reserved cheeses and bake 20 more minutes, while your garlic bread is baking, until the cheese is all melty and bubbly. Serve with a lightly dressed green salad and loads of garlic bread.  Cook the sauce for at least 2 hours to bring the very best out of the flavors - a perfect marriage.  Generously slather sauce over noodles and spread random dollops of the ricotta sour cream mix.  Don't be shy - mix the trio of grating cheeses (use a big grater) and use a good bit in each layer  After the first hour in the oven, remove the foil and bake until the cheese goes all golden and bubbly I don't know how to make a smaller version of this comfort food - I suppose I've never tried.  related searches : Lasagne
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