First food related post in a while, but this came out really well...and it was a lot of fun to do. As some of you who may have followed my food follies know, we love Italian food around here. Due to the time involved and the sheer volume of a pan of lasagna, it does not get made often enough. A couple days ago Tracy asked me to make some but OOPS!! I was out of spicy Italian sausage. Had a bunch of ground pork portioned out into 5# bags in the freezer from my last round of sausage making (went ahead and ground it up since the grinder was already yucked up) so got a bag out to defrost. Next morning I got a batch made and started the sauce. That was Thursday morning. Let the sauce simmer on low pretty much all day, cool, and into the fridge overnight. Back onto the stove yesterday afternoon to simmer a bit more while I got the noodles ready and made some mini Italian bread loaves as a side dish.
The sauce (recipe of sorts to follow)
A small amount of sauce in the pan so the noodles don't stick
First layer of noodles and cottage cheese (Tracy's preference over ricotta)
Sauce, mozz, Parmesan, and Romano
Repeat till you run out of ingredients. I got 4 layers out of this and ran out of sauce and noodles
Mini Italian bread loaves fresh out of the oven
Lasagna onto the Weber
About 15 minutes in. Thermometer was reading about 250 but grate temp was probably closer to 350
All done, cut, and ready to serve
Plated up with the Italian bread loaves and some homemade marinara for dipping
Close up
I was gonna do a salad too but Tracy said there was no point. She had every intention of loading up on the lasagna. This was really good!! Loved the smoked flavor to it but there was just a bit much. Next time I'll cover for the first 15 minutes and uncover for the last 15 minutes. This scratched an itch that I've had for a long time and boy did we gorge ourselves. I was almost in pain when I finally deciding to stop eating...but it was oh so worth it!!
The sauce. I did not measure any of the spices so this is just a list. Season according to taste but this was about the best sauce I've made, probably due to letting it simmer all day and sit overnight. We all know that sauce is always better the next day
1# homemade spicy Italian sausage browned and drained
2) 14.5 ounce cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
2) 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce
Garlic
Granulated onion
Oregano
Basil
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper
Cayenne pepper
Pinch of ground coffee
Pinch of sugar
That's it. Simple stuff but very, very good. Thankfully we have some leftovers, even after feeding the neighbors. That pan of lasagna probably weighed over 10 pounds, minus the pan. It was dense, rich, filling, and amazingly flavorful. All in all a very gratifying meal and we will eat the last of it in the next couple days.
Thanks for dropping in. Be well, stay safe, and we'll see y'all soon I believe. Gonna fire up the new cabinet smoker today that I built and toss a few goodies on it. If things come out as planned, i might have a meal that's worthy of posting.
Fingers X'ed,
Robert
The sauce (recipe of sorts to follow)
A small amount of sauce in the pan so the noodles don't stick
First layer of noodles and cottage cheese (Tracy's preference over ricotta)
Sauce, mozz, Parmesan, and Romano
Repeat till you run out of ingredients. I got 4 layers out of this and ran out of sauce and noodles
Mini Italian bread loaves fresh out of the oven
Lasagna onto the Weber
About 15 minutes in. Thermometer was reading about 250 but grate temp was probably closer to 350
All done, cut, and ready to serve
Plated up with the Italian bread loaves and some homemade marinara for dipping
Close up
I was gonna do a salad too but Tracy said there was no point. She had every intention of loading up on the lasagna. This was really good!! Loved the smoked flavor to it but there was just a bit much. Next time I'll cover for the first 15 minutes and uncover for the last 15 minutes. This scratched an itch that I've had for a long time and boy did we gorge ourselves. I was almost in pain when I finally deciding to stop eating...but it was oh so worth it!!
The sauce. I did not measure any of the spices so this is just a list. Season according to taste but this was about the best sauce I've made, probably due to letting it simmer all day and sit overnight. We all know that sauce is always better the next day
1# homemade spicy Italian sausage browned and drained
2) 14.5 ounce cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
2) 8 ounce cans of tomato sauce
Garlic
Granulated onion
Oregano
Basil
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper
Cayenne pepper
Pinch of ground coffee
Pinch of sugar
That's it. Simple stuff but very, very good. Thankfully we have some leftovers, even after feeding the neighbors. That pan of lasagna probably weighed over 10 pounds, minus the pan. It was dense, rich, filling, and amazingly flavorful. All in all a very gratifying meal and we will eat the last of it in the next couple days.
Thanks for dropping in. Be well, stay safe, and we'll see y'all soon I believe. Gonna fire up the new cabinet smoker today that I built and toss a few goodies on it. If things come out as planned, i might have a meal that's worthy of posting.
Fingers X'ed,
Robert
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