Traditional Lasagna

My brother was up this weekend and he doesn't like to cook much (ie lazy male college student). To help him out a bit, I decided to make lasagna for him to take back to school. I should confess that I haven't ever made lasagna before as an adult.  I did serve as "helper" when I was a kid, but that mostly involved eating any of the noodles that fell apart (noodles fell apart a lot when I was cooking, pretty sure it was on purpose).

Anyways I sat down with my Giada cookbook and made a modified version of her traditional lasagna.  I didn't realize how many sauces I'd have to make to do this - but I was up for the time organizing challenge.

Marinara Sauce

• 32 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 carrot peeled and sliced into chunks
• 1 celery stalk sliced into chunks
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 clove of garlic smashed
• 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil.
• 1 dry bay leaf

Heat the olive oil on medium high heat in a saucepan.  Add chopped onion and smashed garlic and cook until translucent (about 10 minutes).  Add salt and pepper.

In a food processor, blend tomatoes, carrot, and celery.  Pour contents into sauce pan with onion and smashed garlic.  Add dry bay leaf - simmer for about an hour until sauce thickens.  This can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Right after you leave the marinara to simmer, its a good idea to start heating salted water in a large pot with a bit of olive oil for cooking the lasagna noodles.

Bechamel Sauce

• 2.5 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups warmed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of pepper
• pinch of ground nutmeg

While the marinara sauce is simmering, making the bechamel sauce is easy (if you have a second pan).  Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat.  Whisk in flour with melted butter until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Add in warm milk slowly, whisking so to avoid the sauce clumping.  To thicken, simmer the sauce over low heat for 10 minutes while continuously whisking the sauce.  DO NOT LET THE SAUCE BOIL.  Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Meat for the Lasagna

• 1 lb lean ground pork
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat olive oil on medium heat in sauce pan.  Cook meat until browned through - seasoning with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Drain fat from meat, let cool.

Hopefully your marinara sauce is done now :)

Lasagna

• 15 Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
• Marinara Sauce
• Bechamel Sauce
• Meat prepared earlier
• 10 oz pack of frozen spinach, defrosted and drained
• 1 and a half lb of fresh ricotta cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese 
• Butter

Preheat oven to 375.

Cook whole wheat lasagna noodles 3 at a time for 6 minutes each.  Drain lasagna and rinse.  Set to the side.

Combine Marinara and Bechamel sauce - salt and pepper to taste.

Butter 13 by 9 baking dish.  Use 1/3 of sauce to cover bottom of dish.  Lay 5 noodles slightly overlapping above the sauce.

In a small bowl combine ricotta cheese and eggs.  Spread this mixture on top of the noodles.  Cover with spinach.

Lay 5 more noodles on top, overlapping so that entire pan is covered.  Cover noodles in 1/3 of leftover sauce.  Spread meat over the top.  Sprinkle with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese.

Lay last 5 noodles on top, overlapping once more.  Use remaining sauce over noodles.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.  Do a fine grating of parmesan on top of this.

Place baking dish in the center of a baking pan with a small edge (to catch fluid if it boils over).  Bake for 45 minutes.