Of all the tomato-based pasta, I love lasagna the best! The meatier the better! The secret is in the cheese! Mozarella makes it so stringy and yummy. Just recently I embark on baking lasagna. It turns out great!!! Check out this fail-proof recipe.

MEATY LASAGNA

Ingredients:

6 lasagna noodles – this is enough for an 8×8” baking dish

1/2 kilo ground beef

1 jar 10oz spaghetti sauce

1 small can of mushroom

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 onion, minced

2 pcs tomato, diced

1 pint cottage cheese, small curd

1 egg

2 cups mozarella, shredded

1 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles per box instructions. I suggest that you cook it before al dente because the noodles will be cook too when you bake it in the oven. Drain. Pat dry and set aside.

2. Brown the meat. I want to cook the meat beforehand so I can remove the inherent rancid smell and any extra fat of the beef. Drain oil.

3. In a pot, pour 2 tbsp olive oil to saute the mushrooms until brown. Cooking the mushroom well will give out the flavor of the mushrooms. Then put the garlic, onion, and tomatoes with 1 minute interval each ingredient. Put the meat into the pot and saute for 5 minutes to incorporate the aroma and flavor of the garlic-onion-tomato combination with the meat.

4. Pour your jar of spaghetti sauce. If you want a more “tomato-ey” flavor, you can add 1 small can of tomato sauce. Spice with small amount of pepper, basil, parsley, and parmesan cheese for flavor. Let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes with lid on for the first 20 minutes. Simmering the sauce brings out the tomato flavor more. Set aside.

5.  In a bowl, mix egg, cottage cheese and 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese. The egg will hold the mixture together so that your cottage cheese won’t be runny.

6. Preheat your oven to 350F. Pre-heating evenly distributes the heat inside the oven chamber.

7. Spread 1-inch thick of your meat sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Layer next with your lasagna noodles.  Then spread the cottage cheese mixture thinly enough to cover the noodles. Top off with mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. The more mozzarella cheese, the stringier your lasagna (which is good for me). Repeat layering with the last layer coated with a thin layer of meat sauce.

8. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes or until bubbly. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

9. Cut a slice and serve with hot garlic bread.

IMG_0336

This lasagna will turn out great no matter what. But for some suggested additions, to make it slightly vegetarian, you can put vegetables like boiled spinach or eggplant or zucchini or bell pepper into your meat sauce or just on top of the meat sauce layer. For a meatier lasagna, a great addition would be sliced Italian sausage.

So how did my guinea pigs (aka my brother and mom) like it? They loved it! It’s still delicious even when you microwave it the next day and the next. Hope you have a nice home-made Italian dinner tonight! Bon Appetit!

Related posts:

  1. The Chef is on fire!
  2. Chicken Teriyaki Recipe
  3. Quickie vegetable pasta
  4. Another Bok Choy Recipe
  5. Bunny hop into this Carrot Cake Recipe