Lasagna with Heavenly Homemade Pasta

• 

• 

• 

• 

We always have on hand most of the ingredients for lasagna with heavenly homemade pasta. It’s a great make-ahead-and-freeze dish or enough to feed 8 people in one sitting. This recipe is a delicious family favorite and making pasta is easier than it seems and doesn’t require a pasta machine. So give it a try and let me know what you think!

Not only are we using what we have in the cupboard, lasagna is a great way to feed your friends and family during the holidays. Add in homemade pasta and this dish is close to perfect. It’s heavenly. It satisfies children, teens and adults and is a certified crowd pleaser that can be made ahead, as you dream up your get-togethers.

If you’ve got a lot of people hanging around the house, making pasta together is a memorable way to bring everyone into the success of this dish. Imagine a child standing next to you learning to roll out the dough…I brush a proverbial tear away thinking of Virginia and Marie standing next to me happily cooking along so long ago. They grow up, folks, so make those memories now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Pasta Dough

4 cups flour

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

¼ cup water, as needed

Measure flour onto your clean kitchen counter and stir salt into the flour. Beat eggs lightly. Add the olive oil to the eggs and mix. Then make a well in the flour on your counter and pour the egg mixture in, folding it into the flour mixture. Add water as needed to make the dough pliable. Knead the dough until it is smooth and firm, approximately 3 minutes. Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and set aside on the counter to rest for 30 minutes.

If you are using a rolling pin, divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll out on your floured countertop until the dough is nearly transparent, about 1/8 inch thick. I roll as I go, but you can roll each sheet out then flour the top of each sheet and fold end-over-end and cover with a dry kitchen towel until you are ready to use it.

Food for the Ages’ Lasagna

 1 recipe homemade pasta dough (recipe above)

½ cup olive oil

½ lb mild, bulk Italian sausage

1/2 lb ground beef, 90-10 (not too fatty!)

½ a large, sweet onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

7 fresh, organic tomatoes, blended

About 2/3 of a 28-ounce can Italian-style purée

1, 4-ounce can tomato paste

1 Tbsp dried basil

1 tsp fennel seed

1 bay leaf

1 ½ tsp pepper

Filling

1 lb. ricotta cheese

2 Tbsp fresh chopped/1 tsp dried parsley

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb grated mozzarella

 

Lasagna Dough

Roll out pasta dough until nearly transparent and cut into 3 inch by 13 inch strips and set aside.

Tomato Sauce

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot and add onion and cook until golden. Add garlic and cook for one minute then add sausage and beef. Using two forks, pull the meat apart into small pieces and cook until just brown. Do not over brown. Add all the tomatoes, purée and tomato paste, herbs, salt and pepper. Cover pan with lid and simmer on low for 1 ½ hours. Your house is smelling wonderful!

Ricotta Filling

Mix ricotta with eggs, parsley and 2 Tbsp of the parmesan cheese. Refrigerate until use.

Assembling the Lasagna

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Coat the bottom of your cake pan/lasagna pan with sauce.

1. Cover sauce with strips of pasta dough and cover again with sauce.
2. Dot the sauce with 8 Tbsp of ricotta mixture and spread it evenly.
3. Cover this with strips of pasta dough.
4. Cover with sauce, then grated mozzarella.

Repeat steps 1-4 above topping with ricotta sauce, grated mozzarella and parmesan.

Gluten-free flour can be substituted for unbleached, all-purpose flour. To make the dish vegetarian, you can layer lightly sautéed and seasoned spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, etc., being sure to remove any liquid formed during the sautéing before layering into your lasagna.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake in oven for 50 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

 

Enjoy!