I made lasagna the other day and my cat ate a cat sized plate of it. Garfield’s not the only cat that likes lasagna.
This is my recipe for anyone who wants to make mine. It’s good but takes time.
I make meat sauce the first day. I use two cans, 14 oz I think is what they are, of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning. I used Contadina, and try to stay with the same brand for the diced tomatoes and the sauce. They suggest using San Mariano tomatoes for sauce and that does make a nice sauce but the big cans are kind of a pain in the neck for me so I use the littler ones. If you can’t find the ones with Italian seasoning and two cans of tomato sauce, 14.5oz. I throw the diced tomatoes in a blender and get them blended, put all in a pot together and cook on low stirring frequently. To this I add sugar, about 1/4 cup. I like mine sweet. Do it what way you prefer.
While making this I sauté one onions, chopped to 1/4 inch or so. They call it rough chop. When translucent I also add minced garlic, about 2 cloves worth, in the last minute is all, garlic cooks fast and is best shortly cooked or it gets bitter I think, and then I add this to the sauce.
I then saute hamburger, I do 2 pounds even 3 pounds and if you find it needing more add the diced tomatoes, blended, I prefer 93% so not greasy. Break it up to loose while sautéing (on low or medium) I then add this to the sauce.
Cook on low, stirring all for at least one hour. This is the first day. It is the second day I make it into lasagna. We have some over pasta from this the first day.
Second day I make the lasagna. I boil 12 lasagna noodles to al dente consistency , I sometimes make it 14 so I do not run short of noodles. These I drain and place into cold water right away. I remove the noodles and place on paper towels and pat tops dry as I go along so not putting noodles in wet.
Cover the bottom of a large casserole dish suitable for lasagna, on the bottom with a thin layer of the meat sauce.
The ricotta mixture I make while the noodles are cooking. One small container of ricotta, 16 oz, the best brand on you can get. Poly0 or Galvani, whole milk. Add one egg, 3/4 cups parmesan, either grating your own from a good brand of it or shredded fresh. Then I add 2 or 3 cups of shredded mozzarella. Fresh parsley and if you can fresh basil, all chopped small. 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/8 tsp of pepper.
Layer the noodles overlapping as you go about 4 or 5 across, and cover with the ricotta mixture, not thick.about 1/4inch or a little less, I have found the thinner layers make it taste better. Too much cheese and meat sauce in the layers makes it mushy. Then cover that with an equally depth amount of the meat mixture about 1/4 inch
. Repeat again and if you can three times. The top mixture cover the meat sauce with shredded mozzarella, I like this layer to be covering completely and then cover all with aluminum foil. The side facing the lasagna I spray with Pam or use a little cooking oil so it does not stick to the mozzarella.
Bake one hour, at 375 degrees but half hour into it remove the aluminum foil so the cheese bakes. Check to make sure it doesn’t burn. If it does not brown off at the end I turn off the oven bake and put it on broil. If you do this watch closely because it takes only about a few min or less to brown off.
Anyway hope ones find this helpful.
Your meat sauce is similar to mine. I do add shredded carrots though.