Sunday, May 18, 2008
Cooking the Cook
So I had six like gallons of spaghetti sauce from Costco. I'd used one and was working on another. And according to past experience, using more than half would be appropriate for... yes, lasagna. Or lasagne. I've seen it both ways. Whatever the spelling, it's good stuff.
My method which is a combination of styles is...
What you do is you grind up the garlic and slice the mushrooms. Put them in a pot. Chop up the onions and do the same (in the pot). Cut up the asparagus and put it in the pot, too. Follow that by browning the ground beef and after it's brown (!), toss it in the pot. When it's all in there, you add as much sauce as makes the rest of it float and turn on low heat to cook it a little. (If you feel like frying the onions before including them in the pot, then that's perfectly okay. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.)
You then put the "pizza cheese" into a bowl with the eggs and mix it up so it's more like a soup. (That's the part from Wolfgang Puck's web recipe.)
So you put some vegetable oil in the bottom of the dish, enough to coat the bottom, and put a flat noodle there. Then a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodle, then a layer of cheese, then a layer of noodle, ad infinitum. You can alternate the way you like.
Ah, I forgot to mention that you may want to add extra oregano, basil, or whatever needs you have for an Italian sauce.
When it's all ready, you preheat the oven to about 230 Celsius, maybe a little less and then cook it for 25 minutes or so. The temperature and the time aren't crucially important. A little either side is okay.
And there you have a perfectly serviceable lasagna, serving a few people.
Mine serves me and my wife twice (meaning two meals).
Enjoy!
My method which is a combination of styles is...
- Prego mushroom sauce (the larger the amount the better)
- A bunch of flat lasagna spaghetti... noodles? Not sure exactly what they're called.
- Asparagus
- "Pizza cheese" from my local grocer
- Whatever secondary cheese is lying around
- A whole snuffle load of garlic
- An onion
- Ground beef
- A couple of eggs
- Extra mushrooms
What you do is you grind up the garlic and slice the mushrooms. Put them in a pot. Chop up the onions and do the same (in the pot). Cut up the asparagus and put it in the pot, too. Follow that by browning the ground beef and after it's brown (!), toss it in the pot. When it's all in there, you add as much sauce as makes the rest of it float and turn on low heat to cook it a little. (If you feel like frying the onions before including them in the pot, then that's perfectly okay. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.)
You then put the "pizza cheese" into a bowl with the eggs and mix it up so it's more like a soup. (That's the part from Wolfgang Puck's web recipe.)
So you put some vegetable oil in the bottom of the dish, enough to coat the bottom, and put a flat noodle there. Then a layer of sauce, then a layer of noodle, then a layer of cheese, then a layer of noodle, ad infinitum. You can alternate the way you like.
Ah, I forgot to mention that you may want to add extra oregano, basil, or whatever needs you have for an Italian sauce.
When it's all ready, you preheat the oven to about 230 Celsius, maybe a little less and then cook it for 25 minutes or so. The temperature and the time aren't crucially important. A little either side is okay.
And there you have a perfectly serviceable lasagna, serving a few people.
Mine serves me and my wife twice (meaning two meals).
Enjoy!
