Viva Italiano

I have probably just destroyed that word. The Dude has been hankering for lasagna. He LOVES it. He had to run errands today so I told him to pick up some mozzarella cheese and I would make a pan for dinner. You would think I had asked him to pluck his eyes out of his head! Well, maybe not that bad, but he hates grocery shopping. He will go with me in the morning after work because I will have a list made up and there are not many people there at 6 AM. But this was the middle of the day in the big town of Apple Valley and he was way out of his comfort zone. He was a trooper and made it home alive, with cheese.





I had to make the lasagna in a different pan today and was not please with the outcome. It cooked much faster than normal and I lowered the oven temp. It blackened the bottom also. It had to be the glass pan as I have made this dish the same way my whole adult life.






Lasagna

1 pound ground beef, cooked and crumbled

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 12 ounce can of tomato paste

about 3/4 empty spaghetti sauce jar of hot water

1 box of lasagna noodles (I like the no boil Barilla)

Chili powder

5 cups mozzarella cheese

The ground beef was from the other day when I was batch cooking. Normally I would brown it and season it with a little shallot powder and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, but had done that when I originally cooked it up. With ground beef cooked, stir in the jar of spaghetti sauce, the jar full of water, the can of tomato paste and the chili powder. I used a little over a teaspoonful. Stir over low heat to warm the sauce.

Place a ladleful of sauce in bottom of pan. I thinned this with a little water.

Lay the first layer of noodles down. This pan just didn't work. In my other pan (which had to be thrown-I wore a hole in it somehow) the noodles fit perfectly. Layer sauce over noodles, covering them completely as this cooks the noodles while the dish is baking. Cover with cheese. Repeat the layers. I always alternate the noodles so the piece stays together nicely when cut. First layer goes north-south, next layer goes east-west, etc. I do 3 layers.

Cover top with vast quantities of cheese.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes. I cover with foil after about 25 minutes so cheese doesn't get overly browned.

This is what happens when I help the husband with computer work. I forgot to pull the pan out of the oven on time and was in for a little over an hour. And look, overly browned.

After discovering the blackened bits on the bottom, we flipped the pieces over and took the bottom layer off.

Totally going to buy new pan this weekend and leave this one for bars! Still tasted great and that is all that matter.

As a side note, Booger, aka Drama Queen, started Driver's Ed tonight. Pass that bottle of wine honey!