They were flying in Thursday night and Boise was hit with an awful ice storm Wednesday night and although the Boise airport wasn't having many problems and they had a direct flight from Minneapolis, Salt Lake was shut down and was really messing with everyone's schedules. Luckily they were able to finagle a flight that got in only about an hour later than originally planned. Not too bad, but it was great that Chuck had planned a dinner than was flexible!
This lasagna is MEATY and delicious. It was prepared in the early evening and then we popped it in the oven to cook when his parents arrived. It was perfect. It was a tedious process, and would be much more tedious if you make your own sauce at the same time. We were lucky enough to have some frozen leftover sauce from my last batch.
Grown Man Lasagna
Ingredients
7 c. Marinara sauce
1 lb. Sandwich size pepperoni
20 oz. Ground beef
12 oz. Sweet Italian Sausage
32 oz. Ricotta
2 Eggs
1/2 c. Parmesan, grated
24 oz. Mozzarella, shredded
16 oz. Lasagna noodles
1: Heat a large pan to low/med heat and add a single layer of pepperoni. Fry until
crispy (like bacon), remove from pan and add another single layer, and repeat
process until all of the pepperoni is nice and crispy. Remove the grease from the
pan every couple of batches. Tip from Chuck: This process is tedious but key. If
you don't pre-cook the pepperoni it will make your lasagna VERY soggy and
greasy. Be careful, they will cook quickly. Once cooked, set aside. Chuck set them
between layers of paper towels to absorb any extra grease.
2: Brown the ground beef and sausage together in a large pan.
3: Mix the ricotta, eggs, and Parmesan together and set aside. Tip from Chuck: Letting
this mixture sit room temperature until you add it to the dish allows it to spread
more easily and the eggs help everything stick together.
4: Heat the marinara in a pot over medium/low heat.
5: Cook the pasta 3/4 of the way to al dente, drain, then place (and swirl around) in ice
water to halt the cooking process. Drain from the ice water once cool and add a
drizzle of olive oil. They will finish cooking in the lasagna.
6: Add about 4 cups of the marinara to the browned meat and stir to coat all meat.
7: Now the building begins!
Add a drizzle of olive oil to the bottom of the baking dish.
Next, a thin layer of sauce. The plain sauce you have remaining, not the one mixed
with the meat. For all other layers, use the sauce with the meat - we'll use
the plain sauce again at the end!
Add a layer of overlapping pasta.
Ricotta mixture, pepperoni, sauce, mozzarella, then repeat.
Pasta, ricotta, pepperoni, sauce, mozzarella.
Keep repeating until your baking dish is full. We used a 12"x 12" dish.
8: Bake at 365 degrees for about 45 minutes.
When serving this lasagna, spoon the remaining marinara over the piece once it's plated. "All of the Italian grandmothers would be proud of how I serve lasagna." We paired this with a salad comprised of hearts of romaine, hearts of palm, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, Parmesan cheese, and Italian salad dressing. And a nice warm slice of fresh sourdough bread.
Between the 4 of us, including two big eaters, we only consumed about 1/3 of the pan. LOTS of leftovers! This would be great for a big dinner party!
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