Hello everyone! Here is another favorite recipe of mine that I'd like to share with all of you, and yes, it is lasagna. Most lasagna recipes call for a roux, but not this one, so this is very simple and easy to make. Shall we get started then?
Doesn't this look yummy? Shall we look at the ingredients? For this recipe I used:
For the filling:
1 kilo ground beef
2 cans of whole plum tomatoes, 1 big and 1 small
2 small carrots, chopped (optional)
fresh basil (optional)
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 big white onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
olive oil ( regular cooking oil is also fine)
For the toppings:
1 box instant lasagna sheets
1-2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 block grated Cheddar cheese
1 block grated mozzarella cheese
What I do with the tomatoes is that I pour them into a bowl, and crush them with my hands so it becomes mushy.
A local alternative to mozzarella is kesong puti, and this is what I used for this batch. I tell you, it is so delicious as the cheese is very fresh. I used about 10 pieces, I guess, and just tore them to small pieces.
For Parmesan, I usually buy a big block of it and only grate it when I use it. It tastes better that way than buying it already grated. That's just me though. You can do it your way. The more cheese you put, the tastier it is, so don't worry too much about measuring.
I use the instant kind, as this saves me cooking time. It is also up to you to use which lasagna sheets you want.
Let's start cooking. In a big sauce pan, heat around 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you don't use olive oil, regular cooking oil will do. Saute the onion and the garlic until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the dried oregano, stir, and the aroma should fill your kitchen. Add your ground beef and stir until the meat turns brown.
If you are using carrots, now is the time to add them. Some people also add chopped celery, or mushrooms as well. It is totally optional, but adding some veggies add to the flavor as well.
You know your beef is cooked when the oil from the meat is coming out, because initially the moisture of the meat comes out so it is watery at first, and then the liquid starts to cook out and the oil comes out of the meat.
At this point, add in the crushed tomatoes, fill the small can of tomato with water and add it to the sauce. Stir and mix, bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour or more, stirring occasionally, to make sure that nothing sticks to the bottom and gets burned. That would not be nice.
After a while, your sauce starts to thicken, and the oil comes to the top.
A few minutes before you turn off the fire, add in your torn fresh basil leaves, salt and pepper to taste. You are now ready to make your lasagna. I guess you can add dry basil if you don't have fresh ones, I use fresh since I have a basil plant at home.
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius or 365 degrees Fahrenheit. In a 9 x 13 baking pan, I usually line it with foil but you don't have to. The base should be meat, just put in a couple of big scoops of the sauce and even it out at the bottom. Then you put lasagna sheets on top, covering the whole thing. After the lasagna sheets, put a layer of meat, then sprinkle all three kinds of cheese on top of every layer, making sure to leave some for the top most layer. Make sure you also pour all the liquid from the sauce so that the pasta gets cooked properly.
Repeat the process until the baking pan is full, the top layer being meat and cheese. The top most layer should have the most cheese as well. Put the whole thing in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. I usually lower the temperature to 170-175 to make sure that the top does not get burned.
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