Recipe: Lasagna with meat sauce
Habits. They can be good and bad, helpful and harmful. We all have habits we vow to keep, like the habit of eating well or of exercising. And some habits we'd just as soon lose, like the habit of forgetting where we parked the car or of getting halfway through a recipe to discover that we don't have a key ingredient we were sure we had or didn't know we needed. Drat. Another last-minute trip to the store, where we'll probably lose the car again.
The great thing about habits is they can be changed. I used to be guilty of the recipe thing over and over. I was sure I had a box of spaghetti and it wasn't there - I must have used it. Or I'd already started cooking the onions and garlic, and then noticed the recipe said I needed to salt the eggplant and let it drain for 30 minutes before adding it.
Here's how I changed all that, and how you can make your own cooking less stressful and more successful too. Organize yourself with KISSes! (Keep It Simple, Silly)
KISS #1: Read the whole recipe through at least once well before starting. Notice the parts that have to be done first, like salting the eggplant or seasoning the meat the day before. Notice the equipment required - pots and pans, maybe a baking sheet, maybe a blender. Notice the ingredients you'll need and, if it's something you haven't specifically laid eyes on in the last day or so, take a look to see if you have it, if you have enough of it, and if it's fresh enough to use. You may know you have a bunch of cilantro, but if it's been in your fridge for two weeks and it's horrible, it's the same as not having any. Make it easy on yourself.
KISS #2: Take everything out and put it on your counter ready to grab before you start cooking. This is especially important for recipes that are even the tiniest bit complicated, but can also be crucial for simple things like making an omelet. Your eggs could be turning to leather, for instance, while you're looking for your cheese grater, not to mention actually getting any cheese grated to put in the omelet, which is now overcooked and nasty. You get the point.
KISS #3: Not only take everything out, but chop, grate, slice, and measure ingredients as needed before you start cooking. I'm famous for chopping onions and celery and peppers and carrots while the oil is heating and then finally smoking. It's stressful and unnecessary. If you do everything you can in advance, you will be able to pay attention to your cooking and use your ingenuity to make a delicious, beautifully executed dish.
The French have a term for it: mise en place. It means 'putting in place', and it's used in professional kitchens, where ingredients, measured and chopped, and equipment are put in place as required for the dishes that will be cooked. That way the chef doesn't have to stop to look for things or to prepare ingredients. The cooking can be smooth, with all the energy going toward making the food as good as possible. Why shouldn't you do the same?
Let's go through the following recipe for lasagna, using these principles. There are many kinds of lasagna, really just sheets of pasta layered with sauces and often cheese. Some lasagne are more complicated and time-consuming, using more than one sauce and homemade pasta. Wonderful as all that is, we're going to start with a more basic lasagna - one that's delicious in its own right and would be recognized in many parts of Italy, especially in the south.
Lasagna with Meat Sauce for Two
- 9 8-inch sheets of dried lasagna noodles. (I prefer DeCecco brand) If your noodles are longer, cook only 6 or 7 of them. Once they're cooked you can cut and piece them. Some lasagna claims to be no-cook. Don't believe it.
- 1 pound ground turkey or ground beef, or 1/2 pound ground turkey (beef) and 1/2 pound sausage meat that's been removed from its casing and crumbled.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced thin
- 1/4 cup robust red wine, like zinfandel or chianti
- 1 14-oz. can chopped or whole peeled tomatoes. If whole, break them up with your hands before using.
- a piece of Parmesan rind*, if you have it (optional)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 6 oz. ricotta cheese
- 6 oz. mozzarella cheese, torn into pieces or cut into small cubes
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Take out your extra virgin olive oil. Peel and chop the carrot. Chop the celery and onion. Peel and slice the garlic. Measure the wine and put it next to the stove. Remove the sausage meat from its casing, if using. Take out the can of tomatoes and open it. Take out the oregano and hot pepper flakes; have the salt and pepper grinder handy. Take out the piece of Parmesan rind, if you have it*.
*A word about the Parmesan rind. First, always use the best Parmegiano-reggiano you can find and afford. When you finish a piece, don't throw away the rind. It lends huge flavor to soups and sauces, like the one in this lasagna. If you don't have it for this time, just keep it in mind for the future.
Grate the Parmigiano-reggiano. Cut the mozzarella into cubes, or tear it into medium-small pieces. Open the ricotta and put a tablespoon next to it.
Take out a pan to bake the lasagna in. A square pyrex glass 8 X 8 pan would be perfect, or any baking pan of a similar size. A round pan can be used - you just have to trim the cooked lasagna noodles to fit.
Turn the oven on to 400 degrees.
Now we're ready to cook.
In the saute pan, heat the olive oil. Add the chopped onion, carrot, and celery and cook over medium heat until it is tender and golden brown (8 - 10 minutes). Add the sliced garlic, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Add the ground meats, stirring and chopping them up with a wooden spoon until they are no longer pink. Add the wine and turn up the heat a bit. Deglaze the pan, stirring hard to get up the cooked bits on the bottom, until the wine has nearly disappeared.
Add the tomatoes with their juice and stir to combine. Add the Parmesan rind, if using. Add the oregano, crushing it with your fingers as you add it, for extra flavor. Add the crushed pepper and a little salt.
Stir well and cover the pan. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, the pasta water should be boiling. Add 2 tablespoons sea salt and cook the lasagna noodles three or four at a time, stirring a bit to keep them from sticking to each other. When they are about 3/4 cooked - pliable but not entirely limp - take them out one at a time, holding a bowl under them to catch draining water, and put them on the towel you've prepared. Make sure the noodles don't touch each other. Cook the remainder of the noodles in similar fashion.
When the sauce has cooked for 20 minutes, take the cover off and cook 10 minutes more. Turn off the heat.
Assemble the lasagna.
Put a thin layer of meat sauce in the bottom of your baking dish. Lay 3 lasagna noodles over it, positioned to exactly fill the dish. It's OK if they overlap. Add another layer of meat sauce over the noodles. Spoon ricotta over the sauce, using two or three tablespoons spread out in clumps. Strew 1/3 of the mozzarella over and top with 1/3 of the grated Parmigiano-reggiano. Top this with another layer of lasagna noodles, then another of half the remaining meat sauce, ricotta, half the remaining mozzarella, and half the remaining Parmigiano-reggiano. Top with a final layer of noodles, all the remaining meat sauce, all the remaining mozzarella, and all the remaining Parmigiano-reggiano (no ricotta on this top layer). Drizzle with a little olive oil and grind fresh black pepper over it all.
Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into squares to serve. Buon appetito!
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