Lasagna

Lasagna is a family favorite at our house.  There's no major history to it, no secret family recipes.  But we all do love it.  When I was a kid, I had no concept of how much work it could entail, nor did I understand that it really could be pretty simple, too.  

When I got married, my husband told me it was one of his favorite dinners.  Since I was pretty scared of lasagna at that point, I took advantage of the Stauffer's factory outlet nearby our house and bought those large family size frozen lasagnas occasionally for $7 or $8 instead of $15.  Then I served it up feeling super awesome. 

When our first baby was born, we had a big family gathering and hosted a dinner.  My husband was the chef and made his mama's lasagna---5 large, actually!--and served it to the family.  Wow, it was amazing!  So then I would only make homemade lasagnas for our family from then on.  But it still had to be special-occasion for me; it took too long!

Then I discovered no-boil noodles.  All of a sudden, I knocked 20 minutes off the prep time, not to mention eliminating dealing with those huge, floppy, sticky noodles.

And then my own mama told me her secret:  just use the simple lasagna formula, and you can pretty much whip it up in about 5 minutes and throw it in the oven.  Really.  I'll teach you the formula today, and write the recipe for the hubby's favorite sauce at the end.

Here's the formula:  noodles, sauce, soft cheese, hard cheese, repeat.

You can sort of do with that whatever you like.  For my noodles, I chose no-boil.  For my sauce, I made up a homemade version in the crock pot.  For my soft cheese, I used cottage cheese with parmesan and parsley mixed in (you almost always add an egg to help give the lasagna something to hold it together).  And for my hard cheeses mozzarella and parmesan.

Simple layering now...a little sauce on the bottom helps it serve up a little easier.

noodles...

soft cheese...(looks like I was a little crazy and mixed up my layers; clearly the order is not SUPER important)

sauce...

hard cheese...

repeat.  End with your hard cheese, and plenty of it.

Lasagna


for the sauce:
1 lb. ground beef
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 6 oz cans tomato paste
2 tsp garlic salt
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme

soft cheese:
2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 egg
2 T parsley

5 cups shredded mozzarella
1 box (for 13x9 inch pan) lasagna noodles

In the crock pot, combine all sauce ingredients and cook on low 6 to 8 hours.  Alternatively, brown meat in large skillet and add remaining ingredients, simmering until thick.  Mix all ingredients for soft cheese together in small bowl.  Cook noodles if necessary.  Grease the bottoms and sides of 13x9 inch pan.  Put layer of sauce on the bottom of pan, then layer noodles, sauce, soft cheese, and mozzarella. Repeat. On last layer, sprinkle 1/2 cup parmesan before finishing with mozzarella.  Can refrigerate for 2-3 days, freeze for up to 3 months, or bake immediately.   Bake covered with foil at 375 for 30 minutes, then uncover for last 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand 15-20 minutes before cutting.