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You folks are gonna be the death of me!! I can't think of a better way to go though
Since really embracing this forum and starting to participate more actively it's gotten to the point that I'm just not satisfied with basic food any more. Every attempted meal must be epic in one way or another. The inspiration I've gotten from the good folks here just keep pushing me to continue turning out better and better food. This is a perfect example of that. I've made lasagna for years but nothing like this one!!
Started with a pound of my homemade Italian sausage
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Brown the sausage and drain the grease
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Add the components of the sauce and all the spices
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Sauce all mixed up and starting to get happy
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Mix up some garlic butter for the bread
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Made a nice Italian style salad using my spicy pepper vinegar and EVOO as dressing and sprinkled with mixed Italian herbs
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Time to start building the lasagna. A small amount of sauce on the bottom so the noodles don't stick
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First layer of noodles and cottage cheese. Ricotta works well also but Tracy prefers cottage cheese
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More sauce and the other 5 cheeses
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Repeat until pan is full or you run out of ingredients. I ran out of ingredients before the pan was full
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Onto the grill
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Coming along nicely
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Time to get the garlic bread going. This was cooked on the grill also but no pic
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Lasagna and bread all done
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Money shot. My dinner plated...well the first of a couple plates
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Close up of the lasagna
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I've always loved Italian food but since really getting into cooking and learning more about blending flavors, the quality of what I'm turning out has improved dramatically. This lasagna was absolutely fantastic and a flavor bomb. Deep, rich, complex, and a really nice little spice tingle. I put the sauce recipe together several years ago but dialed it in recently after what I'd learned here about creating flavors and layering them. I absolutely LOVE this spicy sauce and would probably enjoy it over a bowl of Cheerios!! The 6 different cheeses were cottage, mozzarella, provolone, Parmesan, Asiago, and Romano. These combined for a very rich creaminess when it all melted together. The lasagna did not stack as high as I'd have liked but I ran out of sauce. This thing probably weighed close to 6 pounds when all was said and done. Although not as thick as I would have liked, it was very dense and filling. I still managed to eat almost three pieces....and promptly fell over on the couch for a while
Thanks for looking.
About my best lasagna ever,
Robert