MEAT lasagna

REGION: Italian influenced, American spun INGREDIENT I'VE NEVER USED BUT WILL GLADLY USE AGAIN: collected indiscriminate cheese ends

RECOMMENDED CHEF's JUICE: A big, bold, red (and lots of it)

NUMBER OF GLASSES CONSUMED IN THE COOKING PROCESS: 1 - we were running low!

Whether or not we can consider yesterday's ragu a success is immaterial because it spawned this beautiful creature! May I introduce: MEAT and CHEESE lasgna. The caps are intentional as this beast is nothing but layers of meat and melted cheese and noodles - ingredients I should not be advocating for as together they seem unhealthy and cholesterol rich, but if you are in the market for something dense, comforting, with ingredients you can easily recognize - this recipe is for you! Note: I had great designs on this dish. I had a friend in heavy-boots that I thought might benefit from some home-reminding comfort food. I *thought* lasagna traveled well. Isn't it supposed to sit like a brick in the fridge, patiently awaiting reheating? It may when you make it, but mine seemed to collapse on itself when we stored it overnight. I couldn't very well bring my friend a crushed lasagna - the potential risk for inferred symbolism was too great. So, if you make this follow my pitfall trick below to eliminate risk of a meat and cheese sink hole.

Also, this recipe is limited. I drew upon Real Simple because I like their page layout. Their recipes are easy to read but I'd argue that they give you guidelines for what could pretty easily be inferred. So, with faith in us both, I challenge you to use this recipe as a guideline, but to consider adding on. I mean, we are now ragu experts, yes? Try to make your sauce more robust. Wow me with your findings!

Now that we are eager to destroy a perfectly good recipe let's grab a drink and get to work!

Here's what you'll need:

Lasagna noodles (cooked)

Ricotta

Mozzarella (or, if you haven't any, amalgamate all the cheese you can find to make your own blend)

Provolone

Parmesean

Fresh basil

Diced tomatoes

Tomato sauce (pasta sauce, any kind will do but keep the sugar content low)

Ground beef (lean - you don't want too rich a meat with all that cheese!)

Garlic

Here's what you'll do:

Follow this recipe, with a big old glass of wine and a 'can-do' attitude!

This is a big old brick of heavy food. Please refrain from eating a large lunch beforehand. And have tupperware ready.

TIP: My noodles tend to stick to one another - a big NO-NO in lasagna land. To eliminate risk, I laid each of my lasagna noodles out on wire cooling racks. I did this in advance which lent me heaps of time to dedicate to my sauce. As we are now ragu-crazy, your efforts should be focused on this instead of noodles. (Disclaimer: I fully realize that in disregarding noodles I run the risk of ruining the dish - as the noodles are the vessel for which the ragu resides. So, perhaps, just buy cooked noodles so that you have more time to enjoy your chef's juice without worry?)

PITFALL: The lasagna settled overnight and kind of caved in on itself. That's because I did not distribute equal parts of the ragu on each layer. I was too cautious and fearful of running out of sauce that I skimped on my inner layers and wound up with a BUFFET of sauce at the end, which I gleefully schlepped on top. This made it top heavy. Delicious, yes. Correct? No.

INADVERTENT LIFE LESSON: If you are not a trained chef and you want to help your friend, take him/her out to dinner and leave it to the professionals.

VERDICT:

We are belly-full and I am pretty proud of myself. I know that lasagna seems so simple, but for me it was always a wonder I shied away from. No more! No more.

#lasagna #ragu #lasagnanoodles