Lasagna for Dinner

Once in a while I feel the need for some good lasagna.

Friday was just such a day.

I don't often make this dish

as it is a rather labor-intensive dish involving

several steps and more than a few dirty pots and pans.

The first order of business was to make the sauce.

Now, don't get me wrong;

if you have a favorite jarred pasta sauce,

you may certainly use that.

This time I wanted to make my own sauce.

My assembled ingredients are:

1 can (15 oz.) petite diced tomatoes

1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste

1/2 tablespoon dried Herbes de Provence

(hush, they are typically the same herbs

used in many Northern Italian herb blends)

1/2 carrot, grated

1 clove garlic, grated

1/4 cup onion, minced

salt, to taste

sugar, to taste

Not pictured:

olive oil

Italian red wine

Did you notice Minx watching from the table?

Don't worry, he wasn't near any food.

He just wanted to see what was going on in the kitchen.

I sauteed the onion and carrot in a bit of olive oil until translucent,

before adding the garlic and the can of tomato paste.

The diced tomatoes and tomato sauce were added.




I then decided to add about 1/4 cup of a dry Italian red wine.






The Herbes de Provence were stirred in
before I added salt and sugar to taste.

I allowed this to simmer for about an hour.






It was time to move on to the meats for the dish.
I had planned on adding one pound of ground beef
along with a couple of my homemade pork sausage patties.

Then I saw Rosie Hawthorne's post on lasagna in her blog,
Kitchens are Monkey Business,
so I decided to add the two slices of prosciutto (chopped)
that were left from another dish.

The meats were sauteed until browned
and the fat was drained.







The ingredients for the Ricotta mixture were assembled.
Here I have the Ricotta,
salt,
Herbes de Provence
and a couple of egg yolks
(left over from making beef consomme)

I also followed Rosie Hawthorne's advice and added some salt to the Ricotta cheese mixture.








That's ready.




I also grated one pound of mozzarella cheese
and about a cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

After cooking the store-bought pasta*,

I began assembly.

First a layer of tomato sauce,

then the pasta.

Ricotta,

some of the grated mozzarella cheese.

Then more pasta,

sauce,

meat,

pasta,

cheeses (including the Parigiano-Reggiano),

etc. until all ingredients are used.

*I'm no Rosie Hawthorne. I didn't make my own pasta for this dish.

Assembled.

And after dirtying

3 pots and pans and lids,

3 bowls,

1 cutting mat,

2 graters,

1 baking dish,

1 knife,

1 peeler

and several other utensils.

I told you this is labor-intensive

as well as a labor of love.

And there's a reason I only make this once or twice a year.

I baked this at 350 degrees for one hour.

The pan was covered with foil for the first half-hour

(thanks, Rosie Hawthorne, for the tip about using toothpicks.

The Foodie Daughter wondered why

I had never thought of doing so.).


Allow the dish to rest for at least 15 minutes

before slicing and serving.

A fresh salad with Romaine lettuce, red onion,

candied pecans

and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano accompanied the lasagna.



This was good, but I know it will be even better

when I reheat it for Sunday's dinner.

So good and it was definitely worth all the trouble.

Christmas Dinner

What better way to celebrate Christmas with the family than with a festive holiday dinner?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I even found a new recipe to foist on, er present to my dear family.

I happen to like stuffing.

And after much internal debate, I finally decided that I do call dressing stuffing even though I never stuff a bird with the stuff.

*

Now where was I again?

Dang, these tangents are tough on an old girl.

Oh yes, Sausage Stuffing (please note that I made a half recipe this time around knowing that my husband and the Foodie Daughter are really not into stuffing).

Here we have my mise en place:

5 cups dry bread cubes

1/2 pound breakfast sausage

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped celery, including the leaves

1/2 tablespoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crumbled (or 1/2 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped)

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

dash freshly ground black pepper

1 cup turkey stock*

*Go ahead and use chicken stock if you are "normal" and not allergic to chicken.

The herbs and seasonings were tossed with the bread cubes.

The oven was preheated to 350 degrees.

After the breakfast sausage had been sauteed and removed to drain on a paper towel,

the pan was wiped out and the butter, celery and onion were added.

These cooked over medium-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until the veggies were soft.

The veggies in the butter were added to the bread cube mixture.




And then the sausage was added.

The turkey stock was stirred in until all was coated.

This then went into a greased 9"x9" pan.

The recipe directions stated that the pan was to be tightly covered with foil and placed in the oven for 25 minutes.

Then the foil was to be removed and the stuffing was to be broiled for 5 minutes.

As I was using a glass pan and had another dish in the oven, I opted to simply raise the temperature of the oven.

Let's move on to the main course, shall we?

My husband brought home a fully cooked smoked turkey from work.

This turkey, from Burge's, is meant to be served cold or room temperature, so that meant that all I had to do was carve the thing.

Done!

Bonus:

I was able to set aside an entire breast for a dish for New Year's Eve

and I have an entire turkey carcass for stock making.

And dinner is served:

the turkey, sausage stuffing and roasted green beans with bacon.

A wine slushie was a fine accompaniment to this festive dinner.

The sausage was good,

but I think this would have been better if the foil had been left off for perhaps 15 minutes,

rather than just 5.

*

The ratings?

Considering that the husband and the Foodie Daughter really don't like stuffing that much, they gave this dish 3 and 3-1/2 stars respectively.

The Foodie Boyfriend and I each gave this 4-1/2 stars.

I think the bread to sausage ratio could be raised to make it an even better dish - along with crisping the top a bit more.

But it was still good and it was Christmas and we are a family.

What more could we want?

Again, that's what I thought.

Homemade Pork Sausage

Admit it: you've always wanted to make your own pork sausage.

No? Well, then I guess that makes me weird.

But you'll just have to trust me that the results are worth the effort.

*

Attempt Number 1:

Searching the world famous Internet, I found a recipe that seemed promising.

But I'm really not sure where the paprika came from now that I think about it.

I do know that since I didn't have savory on hand, thyme is a handy substitute.

Do yourself a favor and get whole nutmeg.

There is not contest between freshly ground nutmeg and that sawdust that comes in the jars.

The pork sausage seasonings are ready to be mixed in.




I made four 2-ounce patties out of this test batch.





Then I fried up two for a taste test.






And what can I say?

Yikes!

What was the recipe author thinking with adding both nutmeg and ground cloves?

And in those ratios in the recipe?

In the end, all I could taste was the cloves.

So, out of my scale of one to five stars, I gave this recipe one star.

*

Next recipe, please...

Ah, here we have Attempt Number 2.

This recipe looked promising.

However, I made a couple of changes.

These are my ingredients:

2 teaspoons dried sage

2 teaspoons ground sea salt*

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pound ground pork

*Please note that kosher salt tastes "saltier" than ground sea salt, so you might need to adjust the seasoning accordingly. I would suggest only adding 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt to the recipe, depending upon your tolerance to salt.

I started off making a 1/4 scale recipe to make sure that I would like the final results.

I cooked up a patty and tasted the results.

Yum!

But still, I waited for the Foodie Daughter so I could get a second opinion.

And her response?

This recipe is a go.

Satisfied with the results, I made the rest of the recipe and prepared the 2-ounce patties for freezing.

Oh, you want to know the ratings?

Well, I give this take on the recipe a five.

The Foodie Daughter was all set to give it a five until she bit into a red pepper flake.

Then she gave it four and one-half stars.

Still, not bad, says I.

Do give this a try.