I have tried several lasagna recipes over the last couple years to find the perfect lasagna and have been sorely disappointed......until tonight. This lasagna tasted like it was made straight from one of the diners featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" --- my favorite Food Network show. SO YUMMY!
The thing is I veered from the recipe, which is what I think cooking is all about. To me, recipes are "guidelines" -- some need to be followed more closely, and others have quite a bit of flexibility. I think that's the genius behind being a great cook -- knowing from experience where you can veer and what will taste really good. I think anyone can learn this with a little bit of instruction and creativity.
When you "doctor" up a recipe; be sure to write it down on your recipe card so if you liked the changes, you can do it again :)
That's the preamble to the recipe.
I adapted this recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" -- the yellow version, he had his own sauce, but I used my favorite marinara sauce instead.
Ingredients:
1 - 1 and a 1/2 cups Bechamel sauce (recipe below)
8 oz. cottage cheese (this is my addition)
3 cups, more or less, marinara (recipe below)
Lean ground chicken & lean ground pork, (about 1 1b. each) browned & seasoned
Grated Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese, grated (my addition)
Kosher salt & coarse black pepper to taste
Lasagna noodles, about 9, cooked al dente
1. Make your marinara. See recipe at http://www.keep-your-home-cooking.com/best-marinara-sauce-ever.html
I always have some of this in my freezer, which made my lasagna easier tonight. Make enough of this great marinara to have some on hand all the time. For the lasagna recipe, you may need to thicken up the marinara. Do this by cooking it longer and reduce it a bit. Tonight, I added enough meat to thicken it up, and had cooked up this marinara a couple times which made it a little thicker.
2. Cook your noodles in salted water until al dente -- slightly firm; drain.
3. Brown the ground chicken & LEAN ground pork together, season with kosher salt, black pepper and italian seasoning. Use your good judgment for the seasonings & of course, taste it!
YOU have just made an easy HOMEMADE SAUSAGE that's lean and tasty.
4. Combine the marinara and seasoned ground meat.
5. Make the bechamel sauce: 1 1/2 T. butter, 1 1/2 T. flour, 1 to 1 1/2 cups milk.
Melt butter in pan, add flour -- make a paste; add 1 cup milk, cook on low to medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Add a little more milk if necessary -- I didn't.
Season with kosher salt, black pepper and white pepper to taste.
**To date, this is my favorite bechamel sauce (french for white sauce), because it doesn't taste of
flour.**
You are ready to assemble the lasagna.
Grease your 9 x 13 glass pan with butter.
Layer:
Noodles (about 3)
Spread 1/2 of the bechamel sauce on the noodles
Spread 1/2 of the cottage cheese over sauce; add some black pepper if you think it needs it.
1/3 of the meat/marinara sauce
Sprinkle with parmesan cheese
Light layer of mozzarella cheese
Repeat this layering again, except on one layer use the remaining bechamel and the next series of layering, use the remaining cottage cheese.
So:
Noodles, bechamel, meat/marinara, parmesan cheese, mozzarella;
Noodles, cottage cheese, meat/marinara, parmesan cheese, mozzarella.
**Don't go crazy on the mozzarella cheese; that was one of my husband's favorite part -- it didn't taste like just cheese. You could taste all the other lasagna goodness!
The original recipe doesn't call for cottage cheese -- that's why I didn't add a lot, and we liked it that way.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes.
The bechamel sauce makes this lasagna so creamy! We loved it!
Enjoy :)
My cooking/baking adventures for the coming week, so stay tuned:
1. Homemade English Muffins -- I am into making everything from scratch, because we can't get ready-made items here -- sauces, certain breads, etc. I am also testing to find the very best recipes for homemade everything!
2. OR, homemade bagels -- we'll see what I fancy this week.
3. Individual chicken pot pies with the best pie crust ever.
http://www.keep-your-home-cooking.com/perfect-pie-crust.html
4. Peach pie (peaches from a can) using the same pie crust as above for the bottom, but a sugar cookie crust on top. Yummy! I've got to make something delicious with what I can get my hands on.
5. Oven caramel corn -- I usually can't stand mixing salty with sugary stuffs, but I tasted this and it was magnanimous.
I made Apple Fritters last week, and they were delectable Dar-lou-nee! I'll share the recipe on another post.
To the journey,
justjulie
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