Welcome back. This week we’d like to share with you a traditional lasagna recipe.

First, the ingredients:

1 recipe Pasta Sauce
2 lb. lasagna
3 lb ricotta
1 egg
1-1/2 lb mozzarella (shredded)

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of water until al dente (a bit hard). Drain. Rinse with cold water to keep from sticking.
In a mixing bowl, mix the ricotta and egg. Next, begin by putting a bit of sauce in the bottom of a large casserole dish. (note: the dish shown is 9″ x 13-1/2″ x 3″ deep. This recipe will make two of these pans. It’s perfect for the 18x13x3 trays you see on buffet racks with sterno keeping it warm.) Then put the first layer of pasta noodles.

Now, put a layer of sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella.

Repeat this process, alternating the direction of the noodles from one layer to the next. Depending on the pan sizes you use, you’ll get three or four layers in the two pans or one large tray. Note, to last week’s sauce, I added 1-1/2 lbs of ground turkey. Browned a bit, then drained of fat. Once it’s all set, bake at 350F for 1 hour, or until it starts to brown. Our oven is pretty accurate, the first time you make this keep an eye out in case your’s runs hot. And the final product.

This freezes very well, and the one pan you see can be 6 meals when served with soup and salad, or 8 servings as part of a larger meal. So this effort results in a nice Sunday dinner and a very happy freezer.

written by admin \\ tags: cooking for the week, lasagna, mozzarella, pasta, ricotta

This is our first “cooking for the week” recipe. As we mentioned Friday, the concept is to pick a block of time, a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when the weather is going to be bad does the trick for me. During this time, you make as many of these dishes as you can, 3 is a good target. One is Sunday dinner, with another dinner or two stored in the freezer, and the other two can either go in the freezer entirely or half in the fridge for the next two nights meals. As Martha A Cheves of Stir, Laugh, Repeat wrote to me, by buying larger portions of some of these ingredients, you can save money, and freezer containers are pretty cheap at Dollar Tree stores. I’ll write more about this concept in future posting, now, it’s chili time.

1lb. ground sausage meat
1lb. ground beef
1 can (28oz) tomatoes (I use whole or crushed)
1 lg sweet onion
1 tbl chopped garlic
1 tbl chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground pepper
salt to taste ( I leave this out)
1 can (16oz) kidney beans
1 can (16oz) pinto beans

Fry chopped onion in olive oil until translucent, then add garlic and cook till soft. In large pot, fry sausage & ground beef (in a bit of oil), then drain off fat. Add tomatoes, beans, onion, and all seasoning. Cook for 30 minutes. Makes 8 servings, so two meals for a family of 4. Enjoy, looking forward to any comments, or ideas for other recipes that fit this category.

written by admin \\ tags: chili, cooking for the week

This recipe comes from my childhood, my grandmother, who passed away over 25 years ago used to make this, and I still remember the recipe.

2 lbs dough (you can buy pizza dough in most supermarkets)
1 lb sausage, sweet or hot
1/2 lb shredded mozzarella or grated cheese
few tablespoons olive oil
pepper to your liking

First, roll the dough out with a rolling pin, pretty thin. Rub the olive oil, leaving just the top edge dry. Cover with raw sausage. In this picture it looks like pepperoni, but this is link sausage squeezed out and spread out over the dough. Sprinkle with cheese and pepper.

Cut into sections, about 4 inches long, and press between your hands (end to end, don’t squeeze out the filling.)

Cook at 350F for about 30 minutes until browned. If you don’t eat sausage for whatever reason, you can substitute ground beef, turkey, or other filling. This is a fun recipe for the kids to help with and to tinker with the filling. Enjoy! Note – when I tried to confirm the spelling of this dish, I couldn’t find anything close. The recipe itself is called ‘bogliolati’ on other recipe sites, but my family never heard of that dish. Different parts of the country I suppose.

written by admin \\ tags: dough, italian food, italian sausage roll, minuloti, recipe