Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

This recipe follows closely on the heels of my attempt to duplicate my brother Eric's lasagna - and it's a pretty close second!

Brian's mom is nursing a bum foot so we put this roasted vegetable together for them. Knowing a full pan would last them about a week and a half, we built the lasagnas in two 8" x 8" pans - we gave one to Sue and Kevin and kept the other for ourselves.

I'm not gonna lie - this is a fairly time-consuming proposition. I used exactly as much vegetables as the recipes called for, cut to the instructed thickness, and it took three cookie sheets to roast each vegetable. And the zucchini took almost twice as long as the squash and eggplant. That said, it's an incredibly easy recipe - it was perfect for a cold, playoff football-filled Sunday at the beach.

One more note - I wrapped ours well and froze it for about a week before we thawed and baked it for dinner last night. We like the cheese on top to be nice and toasty brown, so I baked it the entire time uncovered...and the top really dried out. I think, because the recipe called for no-bake noodles, they soaked up all the moisture from the cheese and sauce. No problem - I just topped it with some warmed up sauce before serving. It was filling, warm and comforting for a blizzardy night.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz no-boil lasagna

• Prepare a 13”x 9″  baking dish (or two 8" x 8" pans)

For the vegetables:

• 2 lb acorn squash, sliced thinly (other kinds like butternut and delicata squash would work, too)

• 2 lb zucchini, sliced thinly

• 1 lb eggplant, sliced thinly

• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme

• salt & pepper

• olive oil

For the marina sauce:

• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

• 6 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 medium size yellow onion, chopped

• 1 medium size red bell pepper, chopped

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tsp dried basil

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• salt & pepper

For the cheese filling:

• 15 oz ricotta cheese

• 16 oz mozzarella cheese, grated

• 8 oz parmesan cheese, grated

• 6 oz baby spinach

• 2 eggs

• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1/8  tsp ground pepper

• salt, a pinch

• olive oil

Method:

Note - check out the original recipe for great step-by-step photos of the preparation and assembly.

Prepare the vegetables:

1. Preheat your oven at 400 degrees F and prepare your baking sheet for roasting vegetables. 
2. Slice squash, zucchini and eggplant into 1/8 inch thick and place them in separate bowls (no need to peel, unless preferred otherwise).  
3. Drizzle some olive oil, add 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper in each bowl.
4. Coat sliced vegetables evenly and place each kind on a baking sheet on a single layer , making sure they don’t overlap or crowd too much (you don’t want to steam the vegetables, instead you want to dehydrate them and concentrate the flavor).  
5. Roast it in the oven for about 15 minutes (it took 30 minutes for my zucchini to roast).  Set aside when ready. 
6. When done roasting the vegetables, turn the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Prepare the marina sauce:

1. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  
2. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. 
3. Add red bell pepper and cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Pour in tomato sauce. Add dried oregano and basil.  Add salt and pepper, adjusting to your taste. 
5. Let it come to a boil and set aside.

Prepare the cheese filling:

1. In a bowl, save a heaping cup of mozzarella cheese and half a cup of parmesan for later.
2. Wilt the spinach on a pan with a little bit of olive oil (I used baby spinach so I don’t get the stringy stems).
3. In another bowl, combine ricotta cheese, the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Slightly beat the eggs and pour into the mixture. Add the spinach, nutmeg, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Assemble and bake the lasagna

1. On the bottom of the dish (**if splitting between two pans, divide all ingredients in two and prepare each pan identically), spread marinara sauce, just enough to cover the surface. 
2. Layer with lasagna noodles (note that the noodles expand they cook).  
3. The cheese mixture goes next, spreading evenly.  
4. Layer the vegetable starting with the squash, then zucchini and eggplant.  
5. Spread the marinara sauce over. 
6. Repeat the layering – noodles, cheese mixture, vegetable filling and marinara sauce. 
7. Top with noodles, then add the remaining sauce and dollops of the  remaining cheese mixture. 
8. Lastly, top it off with the mixture of mozzarella and parmesan cheese that was set aside.  
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, uncovered (Check the cooking instructions of your no-boil lasagna). Leave it uncovered the entire baking time to get the cheese browned if desired.  
10. Let cool for about 15 minutes and then dig in!

Source: Eat Drink Binge

Hunter's Stew (Veal Stroganoff)

We have it on good authority that this is the traditional Hunter's Stew from The Student Prince in Springfield. Unfortunately, it's no longer on their new menu, so there's no way to know for sure.

It was a rich, comforting - and easy-to-put-together-on-a-week-night - restaurant-quality meal. Traditional or not, I'll definitely make it again!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 lb. veal cutlets
• 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, cleaned and halved
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely diced
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 2 C chicken stock, heated
• 1/4 C sour cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp. freshly chopped parsley

Method:

1. Heat half of the butter and half of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add half of the veal and cook 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper, flip over, and cook 1 more minute. Remove veal and set aside.
2. Add remaining veal and cook as above, Set all veal aside.
3. Heat remaining butter and oil in same pan. Add mushrooms and shallot. Season and cook 4 minutes.
4. Sprinkle flour over mushrooms and shallot. Stir and cook 1 minute.
5. Mix in chicken stock and cook 6 - 8 minutes over low heat. Meanwhile. chop veal into 1 inch pieces.
6. Stir in sour cream. Add in veal and any juiced accumulated on plate. Simmer 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve over egg noodles.

Almost-as-Good-as-Eric's Lasagna

I've written before about my love for lasagna and lamented both the absence of my Mom's recipe and my inability to replicate my brother Eric's version. So with a strong craving and more than two weeks' vacation looming, I got all of his tips sitting around his dining room table after Christmas dinner.

Friday morning I hit the grocery store and sent out a few texts and by 7:30 that night we had a nice little dinner party going; an hour later, we had all but polished off the entire plan. Success!

The most helpful tip was to use far less sauce than I usually would. This time, I used just one jar of sauce, when in the past I've used upwards of two full jars. As a result, the lasagna held together much better and you could taste the meat and cheese - not just the tomato sauce.

I think my Mom would have loved it and I can't wait to make it for Eric to try!

Ingredients:

• 1 box lasagna noodles
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Classico roasted tomato and garlic)
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 2/3 pound hot Italian sausage
• 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese
• 32 oz. container ricotta cheese
• A couple large handfuls of Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Pepper

Method:

1. Line a large cookie sheet with paper towels; set aside.
2. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain on the prepared cookie sheet, laying each lasagna sheet out flat.
3. Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a skilled over medium high heat. When the sausage is cooked through, push to the sides of the pan and add the ground beef to the center of the pan. Cook until beef  is cooked through. Combine both meats in skillet. Use a paper towel to sop up any excess grease, but do not drain fully.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg lightly. Fold in the ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 cups of the mozzarella. Add pinch of nutmeg and black pepper to taste. Combine well.
5. Add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Add a layer of noodles - my dish accommodated three noodles layed out the long way.Top with one third of the cheese then a third of the meat. Spoon over about half a cup of sauce - it will not cover the layer completely.
6. Repeat two more times, ending with the sauce.
7. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella and the Parmesan over the top of the casserole.
8. Cover tightly with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes; remove the foil and cook 20 - 30 minutes longer, until the lasagna is hot throughout and the cheese begins to brown. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Lasagna Bolognese

If you've been reading my posts for a while, you know that I love this Bolognese sauce and think this one is good, too. And I really, really love lasagna...but I've only posted short cut recipes like this or that (and no recipe is as good as my brother Eric's).

So you can imagine my delight to come upon a recipe for Lasagna Bolognese: the perfect marriage.

It's a little different than what I think of as a traditional lasagna. It calls for only Parmesan cheese and includes a bechamel sauce, which I'd never made before. And it wasn't as saucy as I generally prefer, but that's an easy fix...make more sauce!

And, let's be clear: this is no short cut recipe. Like any lasagna, it was a little labor-intensive, but was a perfect Sunday-Funday recipe and dinner. (Oh, and I had to convert the original grams to ounces and pounds...so the measurements aren't exact, but they're close enough.)

Ingredients:
FOR THE BOLOGNESE SAUCE

• 2 slices of bacon, diced
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped
• Olive oil
• 2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 lb. ground beef beef
• 1 28 oz. can of chopped tomatoes
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• A small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and stalks chopped

FOR THE LASAGNE

• 8 oz. dried lasagna sheets (I used the no-cook noodles and they were great)
• 1 large ripe tomato, sliced

FOR THE BECHAMEL SAUCE

• ½ a small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 C milk
• a sprig of fresh parsley
• a pinch of nutmeg
• 6 black peppercorns
• optional: 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. plain flour
• 2 oz. Parmesan cheese (I don't have a scale so I finely grated a bunch of cheese and used about 1/2 C in the sauce)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Start the Bolognese...

1. Place a large saucepan on a medium to high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil, your sliced bacon and the oregano and cook and stir until the bacon is lightly golden. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the vegetables to the pan.
2. Stir occasionally for around 15 minutes, or until softened and lightly colored then stir in the beef and the tomatoes. Add water to tomato can until about half full then add to the pan. Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the chopped basil stalks to the pan. (Save the leaves for later).
3. Bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer with a lid on and slightly askew for 1 hour, stirring every now and again. Take the lid off and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on the sauce as it cooks, and if you think it’s starting to dry out, add a splash of water. 

While the sauce is cooking, start the bechamel...

1. Add the onion, milk, parsley, nutmeg and black peppercorns and bay leaf (if using) to a pan on a medium heat and gently bring to the boil – keep a close eye on it as milk can boil suddenly. Strain the milk through a sieve, discarding anything left behind. Melt the butter in another pan on a medium-low heat. Mix in the flour.
2. Start adding the strained milk, a ladleful at a time, stirring each addition in before adding more. When you have a smooth white sauce, bring to the boil then simmer for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and finely grate in most of the Parmesan cheese. Mix well then season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Put the lasagna together...

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the Bolognese sauce from the heat, then tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later. Have a taste of the sauce, and season with a little more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
2. Spoon a third of your Bolognese sauce into the bottom of an earthenware ovenproof dish (approximately 9" x 13"). Follow with a layer of lasagna sheets and another third of your Bolognese sauce, then spoon over a third of your white sauce. Top with another layer of lasagna sheets. Spoon over the rest of the Bolognese sauce and another third of the white sauce.
3. Finish with a final layer of lasagna sheets and top with the rest of the white sauce and finely grate over the remaining Parmesan. Top with some slices of tomato, scatter over the small basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with foil, place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. After that, remove the foil and cook for a further 20 minutes until the lasagna is bubbling and golden. Allow to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

Source: Kung Food