Posted on 05/20/2024 9:05:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
We tested three recipes from Garfield... Recipes with Cattitude! to find out
GarfieldGarfield famously loves lasagna — so much so that Garfield... Recipes with Cattitude!, a 2013 Gooseberry Patch cookbook devotes a chapter to recipes for just lasagna, pasta, and pizza. Looking past the fact that cats don’t really eat lasagna, this is the thing that’s never added up: Lasagna is also famously a lot of work — I would know, since I recently put myself through the paces testing internet-famous lasagna recipes — and Garfield’s human owner Jon, longtime bachelor that he is, isn’t known for being a terribly good cook. There’s no way Jon is making all these lasagnas himself; he’d want something easier (or something frozen).
An orange cat in an illustrated frame with a thought bubble containing lasagna
To that end, the Garfield cookbook offers a few suggestions for ways to simplify lasagna, should you have a Garfield-level lasagna craving but Jon-level chops. They’re easy, budget-friendly techniques that anyone can cook, even if they don’t realize that, for example, Thanksgiving turkeys need more than three hours before the big meal to thaw. I put three of these recipes to the test, each cut down to about two servings, to figure out the best Jon-friendly way to riff on lasagna, and then I went Garfield mode scarfing them all down. The results were much better than I expected.
Emergency Lasagna
“Emergency lasagna” requires neither chopping nor boiling. Here’s the idea: In a baking pan, I layered spaghetti sauce, followed by a layer of uncooked refrigerated cheese ravioli, a sprinkle of thawed frozen spinach, a layer of shredded mozzarella, and a few more spoonfuls of sauce. Then I repeated the process, finishing with a layer of cheese. I covered this “lasagna” with foil, baked it for about 20 minutes, and then baked it for another 10 minutes uncovered to brown the top, just like a regular lasagna. To simplify it even further, I baked mine in the air fryer.
an overhead shot of a small square pan full of “emergency” lasagna, made with ravioli, spinach, red sauce, and mozzarella The emergency lasagna.
In theory, this idea is kind of genius: A ravioli is essentially a self-contained layer of lasagna. Incredibly easy and quick, this approach is indeed friendly to the emergency lasagna craving — you could make this at midnight with the munchies with hardly any loud sounds or dishes in the sink to upset your roommates (or stir hungry cats). That being said, this recipe still leaves something to be desired. I found that the ravioli, once layered, ended up a little thick and gummy, and I wanted more creaminess than the ricotta filling could provide, even with the melted cheese between the layers.
Did it fill the lasagna craving? Not quite; I was pretty aware I was eating ravioli. Still, it’s hard to argue with the ease (and the fun of stacking ravioli like Jenga), so if you’re a person who already tends to buy ravioli and sauce, you might enjoy this simple way to switch them up. A note: As with real lasagna, I found the leftovers slightly better. (A similar recipe can be found on Two Peas & Their Pod — just add spinach.)
Bachelor-Style Skillet Lasagna
Effort-wise, this “bachelor-style” recipe is as easy as the emergency lasagna. (What’s more work to you: thawing and draining spinach, or browning ground beef?) In a single pan, I browned half a pound of ground meat, then added a can of broth and half a can of diced tomatoes. Into this liquid, I threw in a handful, or about a cup, of uncooked rotini. I covered it and let it cook for about 12 minutes, and then stirred in shredded mozzarella. Finally, topped with grated parm, it’s “lasagna.”
an overhead shot of a stainless steel pan containing skillet lasagna made with ground beef, diced tomatoes, and rotini noodles The bachelor-style skillet lasagna.
I’m always skeptical of truly one-pot pasta recipes since I’ve made “skillet lasagna” before, albeit with lasagna sheets, with sad results, including par cooked noodles and wet, unemulsified sauce. However, I was pleased to find that this recipe worked, and that if anything, the noodles ended up slightly on the soft side. As a whole, it was a very satisfying pasta dish.
However, to use the same metric of success as with the emergency lasagna recipe: I’m not sure this would satisfy a lasagna craving. The cheese really becomes one with the sauce, which didn’t give me that cheese-pull quality I go to lasagna for, and if I’m nitpicking, the sauce is on the thin side for what I want in lasagna. So while this method was quite good, I found it better suited to a Hamburger Helping craving than a lasagna craving. (A similar recipe can be found on The Country Cook; to keep it as easy as the Garfield recipe, skip the diced onions and garlic.)
Bow-Tie Lasagna
The pressure was on: This was the most involved, dish-intensive of the Garfield cookbook’s lasagna hacks. I first cooked my bow-tie noodles (a handful, or about a cup). Then I browned the rest of my pound of ground meat with a chopped onion and stirred in a jar of pizza sauce, followed by my cooked noodles and a small container of cottage cheese. I added this to a baking dish, topped it all with shredded mozzarella, and baked it uncovered until the top was browned. (Again, I did it in the air fryer.) Would these extra steps and additional dishes be worth it?
seen from the side, a serving spoon holding layers of simplified lasagna made with ground beef, bowtie noodles, cottage cheese, and mozzarella. the cheese is browned on top and melted cheese is hanging from the spoon.
The bow-tie lasagna.
The Garfield cookbook had set my expectations pretty high. To my pleasant surprise, these lasagna hacks were, in fact, good. This recipe, however, was the very best. Since the noodles cook entirely on their own, it’s easier than with the other recipes to ensure a perfect texture. The pizza sauce is nice and thick. The cottage cheese gives you that creamy dairy that you’d expect from the ricotta or bechamel in proper lasagna. Meanwhile, the mozzarella layer at the top gives you that crispy, lasagna-like crust.
Yes, I’m happy to say that this recipe satisfied like lasagna. That realization inspired a brief existential pondering: Why bother with the time and expense of big-project lasagna when these bachelor-esque approximations get close enough? For a crowd or anyone I’d like to impress, I’d do the former, sure. But if I were cooking for just myself and suddenly wanted lasagna, it’s bow-tie lasagna all the way. (A similar recipe can be found on Gooseberry Patch, which published the Garfield cookbook; just swap in pizza sauce for the diced tomatoes, water, and tomato paste.)
The Winner: Bow-Tie Lasagna
I broke from the bachelor approach of my previous recipe tests and gave my partner a big spoonful. He agreed with my assessment and — to my surprise — even deemed the bow-tie lasagna hack as just as good as some of the proper lasagnas I’ve tested in the past. It’s certainly better than frozen.
The really nice thing about lasagna is that the cheese flavour can hide anything you want to put into it, so it’s a good dish that you can put some older dishes into it as part of the recipe and clean out the fridge a bit.
Even emergency lasagna needs Italian Sausage.
Ohhhh...pathetic (from an Italian).
smh
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.
Forgot to say you can add sautéed ground italian sausage but I do. Not always do this.
“the cheese flavour can hide anything you want to put into it,”
Why it is used to disguise eggplant so often.
Your meat sauce is similar to mine. I do add shredded carrots though.
Bookmarking
Me, too. Quick version of the same even for spaghetti. All commercial sauces, to a greater or lesser degree, are too sweet. No sugar in mine
Interesting, but spinach lasagna doesn’t sound too good, plus I bet Garfield wouldn’t eat it.
Same-same
Lasagna is pretty easy to make. The ingredients are lasagna pasta, tomato sauce and ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheese. The ingredients are layered and baked. Any deviation from the recipe is a Hawaiian pizza.
Cook ground beef then mix with enchilada sauce. Then create how many layers you want of ground beef, sliced cheese and tortillas. Cover with a thin layer of enchilada sauce or salsa and a sprinkling of cheese and bake.
For extra credit sauté some diced onions and bell peppers in the pan before browning the ground beef.
I've never heard of adding pineapple to a lasagna, but I might try next time.
Lasagna:
The heart of a lasagna is the sauce. The more meat and flavors you can add to it, the better.
In a frying pan on low/medium heat, cook two pounds of hamburger, crumbled, until no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside, reserving the juices. In the same pan, add a pound of Italian sausage, crumbled, and cook until no longer pink. Set aside.
In a large sauce pot, add two large cans of tomato sauce, two large cans of crushed tomatoes, and two cans of tomato paste. Stir to blend and set to medium/low heat.
Add one clove of elephant garlic, minced, two teaspoons of oregano, one teaspoon of basil, and two teaspoons fresh parsley. Stir and blend. Add the cooked meats and a teaspoon or two of the juices. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, then reduce to a simmer. Crush the meat with a potato masher so really break it down. Let cook for 2 hours, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes. The sauce should be thick, not runny.
In a large pot, cook Lasagna pasta until al dente.
In a separate bowl, mix 16 oz. of Ricotta, an egg, and 2 teaspoons fresh parsley.
Drain pasta.
Ladle some smooth sauce to cover the bottom of your Lasagna dish. Add a layer of pasta to cover. Spread Ricotta mixture over the noodles, then a layer of meat sauce, then a layer of mozzarella, then sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese, then a dash of parsley. Keep building layers until you top off the dish.
Add more mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh parsley, cover with a foil tent, and cook for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. If the cheese on the top isn’t melted, uncover and cook for 10 minutes more.
For sauce:
2 lbs. beef
1 lb. Italian sausage
2 16 oz cans sauce
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1 clove elephant garlic (not the whole head, 1 clove is enough)
Oregano, basil, and fresh parsley
Large bag of shredded mozzarella
2 boxes lasagna pasta
Medium container of shredded parmesan
16 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 egg
Fresh parsley
Leftover sauce can be stored in the freezer.
Used to make it at Thanksgiving, along with garlic bread, in addition to the usual stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fall fruit medley, salad, and roasted zucchini/squash.
It’s not difficult, so don’t be afraid to try making it from scratch. Never use frozen from the store.
It’s not cheap to make, especially when you buy good, fresh ingredients, and it may take a time or two and some oven adjustments to get it the way you want it, but it’s worth it.
Bkmk
Starsky and Hutch - Lasagna - “Weird Al” Yankovic
https://youtu.be/VkAdBGI8xUQ
There is no “hack” for Lasagna. Lasagna is Lasagna. If you can’t cook a proper Lasagna, you’re the hack.
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