Stacking Up the Week

You know there's enough cheese when there's a nice coat of oil on the top.

As of late, I actually haven't felt like experimenting with any new recipes; my drive for the unknown seems to have stalled due to a lack of energy and money. Unfortunately, my appetite doesn't always follow these lulls in my creative endeavors, and thus I am forced to create vast quantities of old standbys to last me through weeks of meals at a time, at least until my spare time catches up with my ever-expanding list of stuff to make (such as a frozen yogurt recipe that I've been informed I'm attempting). Enter: lasagna.

Pasta is an unquestionably uber dish if for no other reason that for about $1, one can buy enough of it to last an entire week, utilizing whatever appears to be lying around the house to supplement it. While lasagna doesn't represent the pinnacle of pasta's flexibility, it does represent the blessed union of two culinary greats: meat and cheese. And my version of it uses lots of both. Of course, the best part of this recipe was simply that aside from the noodles, I had all the other ingredients on hand and waiting to be united in harmony just in time to be chilled or frozen to take the dish to that next culinary level that is leftovers, which pasta lends itself to even better than most things.

But my ramblings aside, I present the recipe itself. As always, it didn't turn out exactly as I would've hoped, but I still ate every last bit of it (and it only took a week!).

Lasagna
(as adapted from my mom's recipe, designed for a 9x13 pan)

Ingredients
1 Package of Lasagna noodles
1lb Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1lb Cheddar cheese, shredded
2lb Ground meat*
2 Medium yellow onions
6 Cloves garlic
1 32oz Jar of tomato sauce
1 12oz Can of tomato paste
Parmesean as desired

*Any type of ground meat can be used, of course; my mom always used ground turkey. In this instance, I used 1lb ground beef and 1lb pork sausage, as they were both cheap.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Procedure
1) Gather all your ingredients into one compact location, preferably with a large cutting board and knife at hand.

Ok, you may have to move the ingredients aside to actually do any cutting...

2) Start a large pot of salted water to boil.

3) Mince the garlic and dice the onions. Their respective consistencies can vary according to your individual taste or how lazy you're feeling when chopping.

4) Heat a medium-large saucepan over medium heat and add the ground meat. After it has started to brown, add the onion and garlic.

Use a spatula to try and spread the meat around for even done-ness.

5) At this point, your water should be boiling, so add the noodles and stir to ensure they get completely submerged.

6) Cook the meat until the onion is translucent and the meat has become entirely brown.

7) After the desired color has been reached, remove the saucepan from the heat and drain off the excess fat. Stir in the tomato sauce and paste and set the aside for now.

8) When the noodles have reached the desired consistency (they don't have to be completely done yet, as we're baking them in a sauce anyway), drain them into a collander and allow to air out for a bit.

9) In the 9x13 pan, spoon a light coating of the sauce onto the bottom of the pan. This step prevents sticking.

10) Layer some of the noodles over the sauce; note that you don't want them too thick, so just use a single layer. Then cover the layer with more sauce.

You can see from my sauce that I was particularly lazy when dicing the garlic!

11) Add a layer of mozzarella and cheddar on top of the sauce. Don't skimp now! If desired, add parmesean to the mix as well.

12) Repeat steps 10 and 11 until the pan is full. Be sure to save the thickest coat of cheese for the top.

I only managed two layers of noodles, it appears. Next time I'll have to use a roasting pan.

13) Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until heated all the way through and the cheese has melted.

Lessons Learned
I've made this fairly frequently in the past, so there wasn't a lot of experimentation here. However, completely forgot to add any herbs to the sauce; normally I'd add basil and oregano after it has finished cooking. I also added salt to the meat out of habit, since just about every recipe calls for salt at some point or another. Resist this urge! The cheese adds plenty of saltiness, especially if ample parmesean has been used. Plus, more cheese can always be added afterwards.