Lasagna – Recipe Swap

This month’s classic recipe: ham snails. Perfect for April Fool’s Day, yes?

The title alone would suggest some kind of disgusting escargot-with-pork-bits concoction, but it’s really just a biscuit dough rolled up with some ham and topped with tomato sauce.

Inspired by the spiral shape, I wanted to make lasagna rolls. After a few failed attempts at keeping any filling inside during the rolling, I decided just to go with a plain old lasagna.

Ok guys. Lasagna is really not photogenic at all. Especially in fading light. And especially when you are still an aspiring photographer.

I tried getting it in my usual food-shooting spot by the window. Umm no.

With a little artificial light by the sink. Ick.

I even ran outside to the patio to shoot in “direct sun” (such as it was at 8pm.) Suffice it to say that this tastes way better than it looks in these photos.

Unfortunately, I have another hard truth to share about lasagna. Not only is it ugly, it’s kind of labor intensive. I don’t mind all the work, but it’s not really something you can throw together right after you come home from a long day working for the man. There are just too many moving parts and slow cooking sauces.

You can however, spend Sunday morning putting it together and bake it the next day for dinner. You might even forget it’s Monday for a few minutes.

Lasagna

• 9 Lasagna noodles, cooked for 6 minutes then rinsed and drained
• 1 batch red sauce (recipe follows)
• 1 batch white sauce (recipe follows)
• 1/2 pound sausage, browned (I like the hot kind)
• 1/2 pound ricotta
• 1 egg
• 1 C shredded fontina cheese*

Heat oven to 350. Mix ricotta, egg, and fontina together. Mix red sauce and white sauce together. In a 9×9 pan, layer the ingredients in this order:

1/4 of the sauce, 3 lasagna noodles (you’ll have to cut them to fit), all the cheese mixture, 1/4 of the sauce, 3 lasagna noodles, all the sausage, 1/4 of the sauce, 3 lasagna noodles, 1/4 of the sauce.

Bake this until bubbly (about 30-45 minutes). If you like it super cheesy, add more fontina on top for the last 10-15 minutes of baking.

Red Sauce

• 1 32 ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 T olive oil
• Salt, to taste

Saute the carrots, onions, and celery in the olive oil until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the tomatoes and simmer on low for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

White Sauce

• 1/4 flour
• 2 T butter
• 2 C whole milk, warmed (I pop mine in the microwave for about a minute 30)
• salt, to taste

Cook the flour and butter together over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Don’t let the flour get brown. Whisk in the milk. Continue whisking over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. It will take about 10 minutes.

About the Recipe Swap: The recipe swap is organized by Christianna at the Burwell General Store. Each month, a collection of bloggers reinterprets a classic recipe selected by Christianna. Click below to see what other recipe swappers did with this one.

*Did you know you can shred cheese in your food processor? How did I not know this? It takes like 40 seconds. And I’ve been doing it by hand on the box grater all these years like a dope.

Swiss Chard Lasagna

This is very similar to my Stuffed Shells. It’s an example of what I like to do to make things easy, but avoid having the same old thing all the time: Take one recipe that you like and tweak it so it’s just a little different, based on your mood, availability of ingredients, or whatever.

You can make one big 9×13 pan of this, but I made two 9x9s and popped one in the freezer for next week. This one has a few steps, but a lot of them you can do simultaneously (brown the meat while the pasta is cooking, mix the cheese filling in between stirring the meat, etc).

Swiss Chard Lasagna

• 1/2 box of Lasagna noodles
• 1 16 oz package skim ricotta
• 1 16 oz package low fat cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 bunch swiss chard (you could use any green you like here, though prep will vary)
  
• 1/4 – 1/2 C grated romano cheese
• 1 pound ground sirloin
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• Tomato sauce (Here is how I made it for this dish)

Boil your pasta. Wash your swiss chard and separate the leaves from the stems. Blanch the leaves, then squeeze all the moisture from them that you can (wait until they’re cool!). Chop the leaves finely, and place in a mixing bowl. Trim the stems and chop. Add these to a skillet with the ground sirloin and cook them together over medium heat until the meat is browned and the stems are softened. To the mixing bowl with the chopped chard leaves, add the ricotta, cottage cheese, eggs, romano, salt and pepper. Mix well. Now, layer it all in a pan. First some sauce, then noodles, then cheese, then meat, then sauce, and keep going. Layer up to the top of the dish, finishing with sauce at the end. Bake at 350 for about an hour. If you’re going to freeze it, freeze before baking.

Mindful Menus: 6/14/10

Inspired by Rachel, I’m going to start posting weekly menus and linking back to Mindful Menus. It never works out to plan for Sat and Sun, so I’m skipping those days. They are free-for-alls at our house.

Rees menu for week of 6/14/10

• Monday: Lasagna with swiss chard
• Tuesday: Ravioli with brown butter sauce
• Wednesday: Ground sirloin burgers with buttered peas
• Thursday: Pork loin chops with Radish greens
• Friday: Burritoes