Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Rosie Makes More Lasagna.

Lasagna is for dinner.
Recently, I made Lasagna Bolognese, which turned out to be quite the winner. I still have homemade pasta and the ragu sauce leftover. Little Hawthornes are coming home for spring break so I'm making another batch of lasagna.
I'm starting out with the sauce: I had about 2 cups of the Bolognese sauce leftover. Chop up one onion and one green pepper.
I browned my ground chuck.
Keep stirring and chopping up the meat. Scrape up the goodie bits.
Onion and pepper in.
See all those goodie bits? That's all flavor.
I added in a little red wine to release the goodie bits. This smells so good now with the wine.
I added a large can of whole peeled tomatoes which I chopped up while cooking.
Add in a can of tomato sauce. Be sure to rinse each can out with a little water to get all the tomato out and in the pot.
Some bay leaves.
And oregano.
Next, I added my leftover Bolognese sauce. Turn to a low simmer and leave it. Go drink some wine. Relax. Let the sauce do its thing. Every now and then, when you get up to refill your wine glass, stir the sauce.
Mr. Hawthorne prefers the more conventional ricotta filling.
Ricotta cheese, freshly ground salt and pepper, and chopped parsley.
Mix all together.
Homemade pasta cooks in about 2 minutes.
Place pasta sheets in ice water ...
... then onto an oiled pan.
Now we're ready for assembly.
First, a layer of the sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.
Then a layer of pasta and the ricotta mixture along with some ricotta salata.
Just keep layering. I used a combination of Mozzarella and Parmesan and Ricotta cheeses. For the record, I don't think one can use too much cheese, so put on however much you want.
Shredded Parmesan.
Now it's ready for a 350 degree oven. Bake about 45 minutes to an hour. You want it bubbly and the top golden brown.
Mr. Hawthorne fixed a mixed greens salad with a light dressing. Rice vinegar, oil, freshly ground salt and pepper. Sometimes simple is best.
Why do salads taste so much better when somebody else makes them?
Lasagna is ready.
I poured a little extra virgin olive oil over top of a Schwanns baguette, added freshly ground s & p, and baked it.
Now that's some sloppy goodness.
I'm ready for the Little Hawthornes.

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