Lasagna for All

The wonderful things about Lasagna is it freezes wonderfully, everyone loves it and it make the best "I love/I'm thinking of you/ I thought you could use a hand" kind of out of the blue gift. Today I'm doing just that. making small personalized lasagnas for my grandmother who hasn't been doing very good. the most difficult part of lasagna by far is the sauce, a a pre-made sauce is totally usable, however I prefer to make a sauce from scratch, fresh diced onion, garlic and basil blended with plain tomato sauce and a meat of my choice (Italian sausage is always wonderful, however ground beef is usually the safer choice if making the lasagna for someone else).

Preparation of sauce:
Dice onions garlic and basil  while meat is cooking. Put one small can tomato past, one can diced tomatoes and two cans of tomato sauce into a large saucepan. With a little olive oil saute onions, garlic and basil in a large frying pan add cooked onions, garlic, basil and meat to the sauce. the sauce may have to be cooked down until it is thick.

Place a large saucepan of water on the stove to boil. This water will be used to partially cook the Lasagna noodles before putting them in the dish. while the water is heating fix the garlic bread. Its rather simple cut the bread in half spread with softened butter sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasonings.

Lasagna is all about the layers its the building of flavors layering on top of each other and enhancing the over all taste.  A lot of people are afraid of making lasagna out of fear of messing it up. It must be said however that it's far harder to truly mess a lasagna up than it is to make it right.

Ingredients for sauce:
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion diced
1 clove of garlic
1 Lb of meet of choice
Basil
Oregano
Olive oil

Lasagna Ingredients:
Sauce
1 package lasagna noodles (about 12-18 noodles)
1 lb shredded mozzarella
12 oz of Ricotta or cottage cheese
Spinach
grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
put a layer of sauce on the bottom of the dish covering the bottom completely, place lasagna noodles in hot boiling water for approximately two minutes, just until they become barely cooked and barely bendable. layer noodles on top of the sauce, place ricotta or cottage cheese on top of the noodles layer grated mozzarella on top of ricotta then place spinach on cheese, followed by sauce, noodles then sauce again cover top with mozzarella then sprinkle with Parmesan. cover with aluminum foil and
bake for about 35 minutes remove aluminum foil and bake another 15 minutes. Bake longer if it looks too moist or runny. Pull out and let cool for a minute or two (if you can keep everyone from digging in) and serve.

Lasagna is wonderful because as long as you have the basics noodles, good sauce, and lots of cheese you can put pretty much anything in it  and is still wonderful. From sausage, chicken, bison, to beef, from spinach, mushrooms, peppers to zucchini  every meat or vegetable option is completely acceptable and just adds a unique touch for anyone's preferences. So enjoy and don't be afraid to try making a new slightly different lasagna.