Lasagna, Pt. 2 (How to make lasagna/spaghetti sauce)

I love this meat sauce. When we have it atop spaghetti, I look forward to it all day, if not all week. This is another family recipe, this time handed down from my aunt Katy to my mom to me. Enjoy!

Spaghetti/Lasagna sauce

Recipe from: Katy Lyren

Makes: plenty for spaghetti or an 8x8 pan of lasagna, double recipe for a 9x13 pan of lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/2 to 1 t. oregano

2 t. sugar

1 pkg. onion soup mix

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 1/4 c. hot water

Directions:

Brown beef and garlic powder together.

When beef is browned, add rest of the ingredients, and simmer till slightly thickened, or until desired consistency.

For Lasagna:

Ingredients for 8x8 pan, double for 9x13

1 recipe pasta dough

1 recipe lasagna sauce

1 small container cottage cheese and/or ricotta cheese

Shredded cheese of your choice, opt.

Assembly:

Layer 1 row of noodles, 1 layer of cheese, one layer of sauce. Repeat. Top with one layer noodles, and one layer of cheese. Top with shredded cheese, if desired.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 350°. (Bake up to 1 hr if using 9x13.)

Lasagna, Pt. 1: How to make your own Pasta Dough

There is nothing better on a cold winter night than a fresh-from-the-oven homemade meal. Comfort food, by its very nature, is required on those nights. Chili, meatloaf, lasagna. Now, I realize that people are busy, that spending an afternoon making dinner is not desirable. HOWEVER. This recipe is completely worth it. I promise. It doesn't have to take forever, but it will take a bit as you're learning the recipe.  Once you've got it down, it'll only take about 20 minutes, tops, start to finish. Add in making the sauce, and you've got another 20 or so, plus oven time. Your family will love you for this. YOU will love you for this. Your hips may not, but even they can be placated by portion control. Without further ado, part one of how to make lasagna from scratch.

Homemade Noodles

Recipe from Gayle Van Camp (my mom)

Makes: Enough dough for an 8x8 pan of lasagna. (Mom says she can get a 9x13 out of this recipe...I double it for that.)

Ingredients:

 2 eggs

4 T. (1/4 c.) milk

2 c. all-purpose flour (can use up to 3/4 c. whole wheat flour)

1 t. salt

Directions:

Beat eggs in mixer a little.

Add milk, mix.

Beat 1 c. flour in at a time, alternating with salt.

Let mixer form it to a ball, (you may have to lock it in place if you can do that). 

Here's where my mom and I differ...she says grease the counter, I say flour it. Basically, if you want to let the dough dry completely and store it, greasing works, but it takes a long time. If you want to use the dough right away, flour the counter.

Flour your counter. :) Your dough will be a bit sticky now, so flip it around on the counter a bit so it collects some extra flour.  

Roll out your dough as thin as possible (check out these little rolling pin spacer things! They work great if I need a precise thickness - I ended up just putting on the thinnest set, which simply kept me from rolling the dough too thin) and cut the dough to size.

If you choose to grease the counter, roll the dough out as thin as possible, let dry some, then cut to width desired. Let dry more, then flip with a spatula so the back side can dry too. Once completely dry, you can store in the fridge or freezer until needed.

These noodles work famously for soups, to eat as regular pasta (though I usually can't get them thin enough for that...) or, my favorite use for them, in homemade lasagna.  My meat sauce recipe for this is upcoming, so check back soon!

Pesto.

I had a rather large basil plant when I made this. It has since died, and I must start anew.  If you have your own homegrown basil, this is a great way to use it. If you can get a lot for cheap somewhere, that's fine too. If you can only find basil in the super small, super spendy packages at the grocery store, this may not be how you want to use it...but who am I to say? This is a good condiment, and works great if you have some on hand to stir into cooked pasta for a quick dinner. I'm told there are other uses, but I haven't explored them as yet.

Traditional Pesto

Recipe from: How to cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman

Makes: about 1 cup pesto

Ingredients:

2 loosely packed cups fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried (pat dried, not 'crunchy' dried)

salt

1/2 clove or more garlic

2 T. pine nuts or walnuts

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil, or more

1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan, pecorino romano, or other hard cheese (optional) (I didn't use this)

Directions:

Combine the basil with a pinch of salt, the garlic, the nuts, and about half the oil in a food processor or blender.  Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary and adding the rest of the oil gradually.

Add more oil if you prefer a thinner mixture. Store in the refrigerator for a week or two or in the freezer for several months. Stir in the parmesan by hand just before serving. (I don't like parmesan, and so skipped this step.)

Baked/Shirred Egg.

I love this recipe because it's super simple, quick, and can be infinitely increased to feed however many people you need to feed, limited only by the number of ramekins or small baking dishes you have on hand. It also is easily varied, since you can throw in leftover veggies or meat, or fresh or dried herbs with the cream.

These are the basic ingredients. Like I said, add anything extra you want, though it is good simple too.

Butter the ramekin.

Add the cream. (A couple of teaspoons is plenty, though by all means add more if you wish.) Now is the time to add any extras you want.

Crack the egg in. I recommend separating the egg for this, so the yolk and white mix easier with the cream when baking. I didn't do that this time though, and it still turned out great, so again, you decide. (Don't you feel powerful? YOU control the recipe!)

Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 375°F oven for 10-15 minutes. (If your oven is normal, it should take about 12.) Don't overcook! When you pull it out, it will look a little runny, though the white should be cooked and the yolk set. It will continue to cook a bit, as the ramekin retains some heat.

Salt and Pepper to taste, then enjoy!

Thank you to Mark Bittman and his cookbook, How To Cook Everything, for the recipe.

Quiche.

I LOVE quiche. When I was younger, my mom always made quiche when my dad was out of town, as he didn't like it very much, so it was elevated to treat status in my mind very quickly.  After I got married, I waited awhile to break out my mom's quiche recipe, because I was afraid my dear hubby was going to dislike it, and it would be banished to when he travelled(which is not very much, we travel together when we do travel). I needn't have worried. He loves this recipe almost as much as I do. Yet another reason why I love him. 

This is a great recipe for using whatever bits of veggies you've got lying around.  I used asparagus, vidalia onion, and green pepper this time around.  I also left out the bacon, as neither Chris nor I am fans of it. I've had it both with and without bacon, and I personally like it better without, but the recipe is good either way.

Quiche

Crust:

1 c. flour

1/8 t. salt

1/4 + 1/8 c. butter (or butter-flavored shortening)

1 1/2 to 2 T. cold water

Filling:

3 eggs

1 c. evaporated milk

3/4 c. milk

1 t. salt

dash pepper and nutmeg

cooked bacon pieces (opt.)

sautéed onions

shredded cheese to taste

various cooked veggies to taste

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in a small mixing bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture looks like small peas. Add water, a little at a time, forming the mixture into a ball.  Roll out into a circle, to fit a 9" pie plate, or, alternately, place ball in pie plate and push with fingertips out to edges evenly. (Be sure to give a good edge to the crust, as it shrinks a bit while cooking.) Bake at 375° for 8 to 9 minutes.

In a blender, combine all filling ingredients except bacon, cheese, onion, and veggies. Put the bacon, cheese onion, and other veggies into the pie crust, and VERY slowly pour the egg mixture into the crust. (A trick I've learned is to place the crust, with veggies added, back on the oven rack before pouring the egg mixture in.  This way, I don't have to move a very full, very liquid pie into the oven. Careful, though, as with this way you're more apt to spill in the oven if you don't pour VERY VERY slowly.) Place quiche in oven, and bake at 375° for 45-50 minutes.

Note: My mom always covers the crust edges with foil once the filling's in, to keep it from overbrowning the crust. I don't bother. The end product is prettier if you use the foil, but there's not much difference otherwise.