Have you ever noticed that your dinner routine goes in cycles? For example, you discover one dish and then make it several weeks in a row until you replace it with another new recipe? Mr. S and I have been in that mode lately with easy, quick-cook dishes like chicken skewers with veggies.
Valentine’s Day fell on Ash Wednesday this year, so our plan was to go to mass after work and then cook something at home together. We both enjoying cooking, and I was game as long as we made something completely new. He asked me what I thought about lasagna — he would take care of finding a recipe and getting all the ingredients… I was sold!
Lasagna sounds complicated/fancy, but it was SO easy to make! We used this recipe from the New York Times, but made modifications for the sake of time. Also, Mr. S went all out and got our cheese, meat, and lasagna noodles from a local Italian deli, which made it extra special and delicious! One warning: our modifications made TWO lasagnas — we took one to my parents’ house the following night and had dinner with them! (We still have enough lasagna leftovers to last weeks!)
Need:
2 Jars of Rao’s marinara sauce
.5 White onion
.5 Tub of Bella mushrooms
1 Green bell pepper
1 Pound of spicy Italian sausage
1 Pound of ground beef
2 Small tubs of Romano cheese
1 Small tub of Ricotta cheese
1 Bag of Mozzarella cheese
1 Box of short lasagna noodles
Oven to 350 degrees
Hollyized Steps:
First, pour the two jars of sauce into a pot and put on low heat to begin warming it up. In another pan, begin cooking the ground beef and sausage. Once the meat is almost fully cooked, add in all your chopped veggies, and cook until the meat is done. You will want to drain out all the fat (there will be a lot), and put the cooked meat and veggies into a mixing bowl. (My handsome chef in action!)
While the meat is sitting, begin boiling water for your lasagna noodles. The noodles only boil for FOUR minutes, so be sure to start a timer! After you drain them, lay the lasagna noodles out on cheese cloth or a cutting board to prevent them from sticking together. Be careful doing this, they will be very hot!
Create the cheese filling in another bowl. Manually combine the full tub of Ricotta cheese with both tubs of Romano cheese, and .75 of the mozzarella cheese. (This will be a bit of an arm workout!) A silicone spatula will be your best friend to mix all the cheese — the ricotta can be kind of sticky.
Finally, you can start building your lasagna! Cover the bottom of your pan with a thin layer of sauce. Then, add a layer of noodles. Next, add a layer of meat, then sauce, then another layer of noodles. Next, create a cheese layer by topping the noodles with sauce, and then spreading your cheese mixture. Continue building your lasagna until you get to the top of your baking dish. Top it off by adding another layer of sauce and using the rest of your mozzarella cheese.
Bake your lasagna for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, and let it sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven.
After the 10 minutes is up, you can slice and serve! This lasagna turned out SO good and our modifications to the original recipe made it really easy! You will love this lasagna!
Real life serving… sometimes life is messy, but it is still delicious!
lasagna
Ingredients
- 2 jars Rao’s marinara sauce
- .5 White onion
- .5 tub Bella mushrooms
- 1 Green bell pepper
- 1 lb spicy Italian sausage
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 small tubs Romano cheese
- 1 small tub Ricotta cheese
- 1 bag Mozzarella cheese
- 1 box short lasagna noodles
Hollyized Steps:
- Oven to 350 degrees
- First, pour the two jars of sauce into a pot and put on low heat to begin warming it up. In another pan, begin cooking the ground beef and sausage. Once the meat is almost fully cooked, add in all your chopped veggies, and cook until the meat is done. You will want to drain out all the fat (there will be a lot), and put the cooked meat and veggies into a mixing bowl. (My handsome chef in action!)
- While the meat is sitting, begin boiling water for your lasagna noodles. The noodles only boil for FOUR minutes, so be sure to start a timer! After you drain them, lay the lasagna noodles out on cheese cloth or a cutting board to prevent them from sticking together. Be careful doing this, they will be very hot!
- Create the cheese filling in another bowl. Manually combine the full tub of Ricotta cheese with both tubs of Romano cheese, and .75 of the mozzarella cheese. (This will be a bit of an arm workout!) A silicone spatula will be your best friend to mix all the cheese — the ricotta can be kind of sticky.
- Finally, you can start building your lasagna! Cover the bottom of your pan with a thin layer of sauce. Then, add a layer of noodles. Next, add a layer of meat, then sauce, then another layer of noodles.
- Next, create a cheese layer by topping the noodles with sauce, and then spreading your cheese mixture. Continue building your lasagna until you get to the top of your baking dish.
- Top it off by adding another layer of sauce and using the rest of your mozzarella cheese.
- Bake your lasagna for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, and let it sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven.
- After the 10 minutes is up, you can slice and serve! This lasagna turned out SO good and our modifications to the original recipe made it really easy! You will love this lasagna!
