My Favorite Lasagna

This recipe is a combination of Chicken Parmigiana by Pioneer Woman, and Lasagna Roll Ups by Favorite Family Recipes.  Boy oh boy is it perfect!  It's a bit of work, but I promise it's worth it.  Say goodbye to nasty jarred or canned spaghetti sauce!

When I made this today, I prepared it before church and placed it in the refrigerator. When we got home all I had to do was bake and serve!  You could easily assemble it the day before, refrigerate overnight and cook it the next day.

You could also make a meatless version by omitting the ground beef and associated cooking step.

Ingredients for the sauce:
-1 lb ground beef (or sausage, or turkey, or whatever meat you think would taste good)
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 TB olive oil
-1 TB butter
(If you are using a meat that is NOT lean, omit the oil and only use butter, or you will have a TON of grease to remove. The butter is for delicious flavor.)
-1 whole medium onion, diced (or grated)
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-3/4 cup chicken broth
-3 cans crushed tomatoes
-2 TB sugar
-1 TB dried parsley (or about 1/4 cup fresh, chopped)

Ingredients for the filling:
-2 cups cottage cheese
-1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
-1 egg, lightly beaten
-1 tsp dried parsley (or 1 TB fresh, chopped)
-1/2 tsp onion powder
-1/4 tsp garlic powder
-salt and pepper to taste

-Lasagna noodles, cooked, drained and rinsed (rinsed so they don't stick together and tear apart. :( Also, I like to break my noodles in half before cooking, so they're even more less likely to tear and stick together.)
-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or you could use more fresh Parmesan, I just like how gooey and melty the mozz is.)

Preparation Instructions:
Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat. Season one side of ground beef with salt and pepper. When butter is melted and oil/butter mixture is hot, place the ground beef, seasoned side down in the pan.  While cooking, season the other side of ground beef with salt and pepper.  Cook on first side for 2-3 minutes until you get a nice crust.  Then you can either turn over the ground beef, or start breaking it up, or a combination of both.  Cook until it is no longer pink.  Drain grease and return to heat.

Add onions and garlic and cook until the onions are no longer raw. Pour in chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the bits off the bottom. Cook for 1 minute.

Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I would recommend covering it during this cooking time, since it tends to bubble all over.) Add chopped parsley and give sauce a good stir and a taste. Add more salt and pepper, if needed.

During the 20 minute simmering time, cook the lasagna noodles to al dente. Drain and rinse.

In a bowl combine all filling ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Cover with lasagna noodles. Spread a thin layer of filling over the noodles.  Repeat until you run out of each. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and cook until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Perfection!

To make ahead and freeze: Assemble lasagna in a 9x13 pan that is lined with foil, with plenty extra foil on the sides.  Once assembled, cover with foil and freeze until firm.  Once firm, remove from the pan, and wrap with extra foil.  Freeze for up to two months.

To prepare after frozen: Remove lasagna from freezer and remove foil. Place in a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover and thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove cover and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and cook until cheese has melted.

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Have you been to Pizza Pie Cafe?  If you have, have you tried their red pepper pasta sauce?  Oh my, it is divine.  I crave that stuff.  Unfortunately, the pizza at Pizza Pie Cafe is a little advanced for Lance's tastes, so I don't get to eat there very often.

Lucky for me, Lance likes this dish!  So, instead of spending $18 for Lance and I to go to Pizza Pie Cafe for me to get that pasta, I can make this.  This isn't as good, I'll admit, but it works.

3-4 roasted red bell peppers (you can use the ones that come in a jar, or you can roast your own)
2 Tb olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tb red pepper flakes (adjust to taste, I like it SPICY)
1/4 c chicken broth
1/2 c heavy cream
fresh Parmesan (NOT the crappy kind in a can, we want the fresh kind, that you will grate yourself)
1 lb pasta, any kind will do
salt, salt, salt

So, how do you roast bell peppers?  I put them under the broiler for 20-30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.  I want all sides to be burnt black. After they're nice and black, place in a plastic zip lock bag and put in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Then you'll want to take them out of the fridge and peel off the blackened skin.  I love that part.  Then you of course clean out the seeds and membranes. Voila!

And now, the recipe:

Cook pasta!

Meanwhile, put olive oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook until soft.  Add chicken broth and cook until heated.  Put garlic-onion mixture in the blender with the chopped roasted red peppers.

I do this because Lance doesn't like onion chunks.  Therefore, you blend the heck out of it, until there are no more onion chunks.  If you don't mind chunks, then you could just blend the peppers.  Or the peppers and the chicken broth.  My blender sucks. If I don't have a certain amount of liquid in it, it won't blend.  So.... yeah.  Adjust the blending to your desire, or your blender's desire.

Put red pepper mixture back into pan over medium eat, add salt.  Salt, salt, salt.  It will need salt.  Also add the red pepper flakes, and the 1/2 cup cream.  Cook until warm, or hot, or whatever temperature you prefer. Give it a taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.  Add cooked pasta, stir together.  MMMMM.

Grate some fresh Parm on top of each serving.   You could also add fresh parsley or basil, but I'm not a fan of either of those.  Maybe cilantro would be good.... I'll have to try that next time.

Western Noodle Bake

This was extremely quick and easy, and I had all of the ingredients for it without making a trip to the store!

Any time I brown ground beef, I start it the same way: a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, some red onion, and about a clove of garlic.  I bought some of that pre-chopped garlic in a bottle so I don't smell like garlic all of the time.  1/2 tsp = 1 clove.  It's very handy!

 Once the garlic and onion is a nice caramel color...

Add the ground beef to the pan with some salt and pepper and brown the heck out of it.

You should have previously put on a pot of water to boil, and by this time it should be boiling.  Add the noodles and give it a stir.

Once the ground beef is browned, drain any grease left in the pan.  You know that little bit of grease that you can't get with a spoon?  I use a paper towel to soak it up.  Unfortunately, today I didn't have any paper towels left, so I left that little bit in my beef.  I know, I'm going to die of a heart attack.

Add the tomato sauce to the ground beef.

Let that hang out and simmer while you check on the noodles and get the other ingredients ready.

Mix sour cream and cottage cheese in a bowl.

Add a lot of pepper.

The noodles should be ready by now, so drain them, but do not rinse.  I watch a lot of Chopped on the Food Network, and rinsing your noodles is very bad, according to Scott.  So drain, but no rinse.

Then add the meat to the noodles.

Looking good...

Then add the sour cream and cottage cheese mixture to the noodle mixture.

Looking better....

It will look perfect once you've added the green onions.  Those are my favorite kind of onion.  Yum!

 Then dump it all into a 9X9 pan.

Instead of mixing everything together and dumping it in a pan, you could layer it, like lasagna.  Which is actually what the original recipe said to do, I just didn't listen.  Whoops!

Cover the entire thing with cheese.  Mmmm, cheese....

Then bake in the oven until the cheese is melted, about 5-10 minutes.

 Mmmmm...

I served mine with a simple salad.

This dish reminded me of Western Mac that my mom used to make, using the recipe on the wide of a mac & cheese box.  It was basically macaroni and cheese with ground beef added to it.  This is the grown-up version of that.

INGREDIENTS: 
1-¼ pound ground beef
1 can 15-ounces tomato sauce 
½ teaspoons Salt 
freshly ground black pepper 
8 ounces, noodles, any kind will do
½ cups sour cream 
1-¼ cup cottage cheese 
sliced green onions (to taste) 
1 cup grated cheese, sharp cheddar would be nice, but I used Mexican blend.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground beef in a large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 teaspoon salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir.

To assemble, add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on half the grated cheese. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake until all cheese is melted.

Cheeseburger Pasta

This recipe was shared with me by Sierra!

1/2 package bacon, cut into pieces

1 bag corkscrew pasta
1/2 lb ground beef
3/4 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup ketcup
1/4 cup water
Cheese


(This makes the perfect amount for two people with leftovers for lunch the next day!  If you are cooking for four or more people you may want to double the recipe.)

Place bacon on a baking sheet, and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes (depends on how crispy you like it).
Boil pasta per noodle directions.
While pasta is boiling, brown your ground beef in whatever seasonings you like.  I like onion, garlic powder, seasoning salt, and pepper.  Drain the grease.  When bacon is ready, remove from oven and place on paper towels to soak up as much grease as you can, then add to the ground beef.  Add your BBQ sauce, ketchup and water and heat through on medium heat, until the sauce thickens a bit.

Combine noodles and sauce and top with cheese.

Delicious!