Lasagna

Notes

I really like my lasagna.

• I am a terrible person and use the instant/no boil/pre-boiled lasagna noodles. They are just so stinking convenient.
• This is a great dish to make on a day you are making Marinara Sauce. You use the sauce that you need in this dish, then you can freeze the rest.
• I use this 8½" x 11" x 3" ceramic pan/pot with rounded corners and ribbing to cook lasagna. Rounded corners mean no hot corners when baking, which means no dry corners in your lasagna. Sure, it means your lasagna noodles aren't going to fit perfectly but I just break off their corners (and toss the breakings back in the dish) and nobody ever notices.
• Save some $$ and shred your own cheese.
• This is a pretty hearty dish. I can't have salad with it because even a small slice fills me up.

Ingredients

• 1# ground beef
• 1# Italian sausage
• Marinara sauce
• 15oz ricotta cheese (I like whole milk)
• 16oz Mozzarella cheese (Whole milk here, too), shredded
• 2 eggs
• Lasagna noodles

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°.
2. Cook the ground beef and Italian sausage together, breaking them up.
3. Add just enough marinara sauce to coat the meat well. You don't want the mixture to be soupy. You can simmer for a bit or not, because they are going to simmer when baking. I almost always simmer for a little bit.
4. Combine the ricotta, shredded mozzarella, and eggs. By hand. It's fun.
5. Spray your cooking pan with non-stick spray.
6. Divide (mentally or by drawing lines in their containers) the meat mixture and cheese mixture into thirds.
7. Assemble your lasagna (you may need to adjust the # of layers to your pan's size):
   1. Meat layer
   2. Noodle layer
   3. Cheese layer
   4. Noodle layer
   5. Meat
   6. Noodle
   7. Cheese
   8. Noodle
   9. Meat
   10. Cheese on top (that's right, no noodle layer here)
8. Bake for 60 minutes.

Marinara Sauce

Notes

So simple.

• Taken and adapted from a cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis.
• You will want to cook this in a pot with a lid and a thick bottom. If you use a thin-bottomed pot it will burn the sauce for sure. Burnt sauce is really hard to scrub out of a pot.
• If you don't already have one, you need a splatter screen.

Ingredients

• 2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
• ⅓C olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 celery ribs, cleaned and the white ends trimmed off (just wanna use the green)
• 1 red bell pepper
• Garlic
• Dried oregano (I just pour it in. Probably ⅓ to ½C.)
• 2 bay leaves (the ones from Morton & Bassett are the best and well worth the extra $$)
• Red wine (I just grab a cheap six-pack of little bottles)
• Kosher salt

Directions

1. Cut up the veggies and cook them, covered, over medium heat in olive oil a bit. Not enough to brown the onion, though.
2. While they are cooking, cut the bell pepper in half, remove the seeds, and roast each half over the flame from your stove (you do have a gas stove, right?).
3. Slice the bell pepper and add it along with the oregano and garlic (I use the minced stuff from Costco and I use a lot--two or three heaping tablespoons) to the veggies and stir.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes and a few splashes of red wine to the mixture and stir.
5. Set to simmer at the lowest temperature you can. You do not want a tomato sauce to burn at the bottom of the pot.
6. Stick two bay leaves in the sauce. Leave a little bit of them sticking out so you can remove them later.
7. This is important: use a splatter screen--do not cover with a lid. This is going to reduce the water in the sauce so you don't end up with water on your plate under the spaghetti.
8. Simmer for an hour or two.
9. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves, and use your want mixer to pureé the veggies.
10. Add kosher salt to taste (at least 2 tsp).

Meat Loaf

Notes

The classic.

• No horrible tomato sauce/ketchup/honey on the outside, though. Tried it once. Terrible.
• Note that leftovers make great sandwiches and Chili Spaghetti.
• I press the mixture into a loaf pan, then turn that over and dump it on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. I like the browned bits of the meat loaf and the foil keeps baked-on schmutz from messing up the cookie sheet.
• Goes really well with mashed potatoes and beef gravy. Don't forget a veggie!
• Note that you can substitute 2C of shredded wheat crumbs (yes, from the cereal) for the bread. Some people here actually prefer that version. Plus it's a good way to use the crumbs and not just toss them.

Ingredients

• 1# good ground beef (ground sirloin is best, if you can afford it, but I almost always use a Costco lean chub)
• 1# fat ground beef (need the fat for flavor)
• 2 slices of bread, toasted so they're very dry
• 2 eggs
• 1C sauce (tomato, bbq, duck, or whatever)
• Parsley
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Dash or two of Red Wine Vinegar
• Dash or two of Worcestershire Sauce (optional)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°.
2. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Spray the inside of a loaf pan.
4. Break up the break into crumbs. A cheese grater can be helpful (but if you didn't toast the bread enough, it just makes a mess).
5. Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl, wet to dry.
6. The seasonings don't have measurements because you do it to your taste (plus I don't measure them so much). A couple teaspoons for salt is a good start. Then again, I also use two heaping tablespoons of minced garlic because I really like garlic.
7. Combine with your hands. Good, squishy fun!
8. Press the mixture into the loaf pan, then turn over and dump the loaf onto the cookie sheet.
9. Bake for 30-60 minutes, depending on how well-done you like your loaf.