Homemade Lasagna

For the first post of this website, I thought I would make something that I am familiar in making. It may seem like a hard and long process, but I assure you that this dish will be your famous go to food when you get invited to a potluck or host a party. Be prepared to get asked about the ingredients and the process of making the lasagna…CAUSE IT’S REALLY SIMPLE.

First off, I modified the recipe, several times, leaving some ingredients out or skipping some steps. This is common (when I am cooking) because I AM LAZY!

Ingredients you will need:
1 pound of a (lean or fatty) ground meat of your choice (common choices are ground beef or ground chicken, I have only used beef and chicken but you could try pork or lamb, do not be afraid to try different types of meats as they have different textures)
1 cup (or approximated) of chopped parsley (optional if you’re not a parsley fan, it just gives colour and fresh flavour)
1 jar of tomato sauce
12 sheets of lasagna pasta (dried, from box, you can get the ready to cook pasta sheets)
1 egg, beaten (the size and colour of the egg doesn’t matter, the egg binds the sauce together)
1 container of ricotta cheese (the supermarket I usually get my groceries at has two different sizes (300g and 400g), the first time I made this recipe, i followed the recipe step by step..my family though the lasagna cause was too cheesy, and i ended up using the smaller container whenever I make this dish)
1 block of mozzarella cheese, grated (it really depends on how much cheese you like, my mom doesn’t like the lasagna I make to be too cheesy but my dad likes it cheesy and creamy, I know it can be hard to satisfy both sides)
some parmesan cheese (can be grated from a block cheese or bought dried)

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C (does not matter where the rack is positioned)
2. preheat a medium size cooking pot on high (on a burner)
3. coat the bottom of the pot with a bit of oil (vegetable or corn oil)
4. turn to medium heat and stir meat to brown
5. once the meat is cooked thoroughly, open tomato sauce and pour in into the pot with the meat
6. using the container that held the tomato sauce, fill it up with cold water and pour the water into the meat-tomato sauce
7. cover the pot, turn the heat to high and wait for the mixture to boil
8. uncover the pot and turn heat to medium (this reduces the splattering of the mixture)
9. stir in chopped parsley, ricotta cheese, half of the parmesan cheese and beaten egg
10. stir till the cheeses have melted (the colour should be a red-white thick sauce)
11. turn off the burner
12. starting off with a clean dish, spread the tomato-meat-cheese sauce to cover the bottom of the dish (this prevents the pasta noodles from sticking to the dish)
13. layer the dried pasta sheets on top of the sauce and then a layer of sauce
13. sprinkle a layer of mozzarella and parmesan cheese (to your liking)
14. continue layering pasta, sauce and cheese until all the pasta is used (if the last layer does not have enough sauce, DO NOT PANIC!, read the ‘tips and hints’ section below)
15. cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes
16. after 60 minutes has passed, remove the foil and continue baking for 15 minutes
ENJOY!

Tips and hints.

One way that you could please both sides can be to split the cheese in half. For the people that like their lasagna to be cheesy, just add more cheese to one side of the cooking dish. Or lessen the amount of cheese on half of the cooking dish.
You can always split the recipe in half if you are serving for 1 to 2 people
This recipe serves about 4
A simple salad, veggies and or soup will add a nice touch to the meal
I purchase my meat ungrounded. If I’m feeling lazy (in most cases), I will put the meat and parsley in a food processor and chop them till they are in small bits (saves me time compared to grinding the meat with a Kitchen Aid).
If you are worried about the seasoning of the lasagna, skip putting in the parmesan into the sauce. I find that some parmesan cheese can be more saltier than others.
Feel free to play around with the recipe
I prefer a thick sauce, it gives more texture and helps with the cooking