La Kitchenette Souris: Mom's Homemade Lasagna

 I am so pleased to be finally bringing you this recipe, as I have been wanting to for a while now. 

Consider yourself warned, it is very time consuming, and in essence is two recipes combined. My Mom had a few recipes she blended, and this is the end result. I made one small adjustment myself with the cheese filling and it was delicious! 

Now, if you feel like really dedicating an entire day to this, you could make homemade pasta, which I would love to do one day! Can you imagine how delicious that would be?!

This recipe is a little challenging for me to write out, because I doubled some things and tripled others, as I was making multiple Lasagnas, but I will do my best! 

Also, I am just assuming you know the top layer of a Lasagna is some amazing mozzarella, and loads of it. So I am also going to assume you have taken Step 1 and have a large amount shredded and ready for the tops of your Lasagna. 

Anyways, step 2, we need to make our Italian Meat Sauce. Let's begin. 

❤

Italian Meat Sauce

2 cups chopped onions

4 gloves minced garlic

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

4 cups water

12 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (approx.)

 2 6oz cans tomato paste 

1/2 cup snipped fresh parsley

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 teaspoons crushed dried oregano

1/2 crushed dried thyme

2 teaspoons salt

2 Bay leaves

4 pounds hamburger, browned

Cook onions & garlic in hot oil until tender.

Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 2 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally.

Remove Bay leaves. Blend with hand held blender.

Makes approx. 9 cups. 

Note: I tend to eyeball a lot of things, so I think I made a bit more as I wanted to use up some tomatoes and beef. Hehe Honestly, if you know your basics, you can't go too wrong when making a good meat sauce. I wouldn't hesitate to add some more spices, maybe peppers, more garlic and so on. 

Now for Step 3

❤

Cottage Cheese Mixture

1 1/2 cups full fat cottage cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon dried crushed parsley

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

Whip the egg for a minute or so, just till its blended, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend.

NOTE: You may need to double or triple the batch depending on how many Lasagnas you are trying to make. Again, I just eyeball things and go for it. 

And now we are ready to start with the layering. 

Basically, I just put down a layer or sauce, then noodles, then the cream cheese mixture, until the pan was full and topped it with shredded cheese. 

It was by no means fancy or photogenic. But dang, does it taste delicious! 

Also, I have NO CLUE if that was the right way to do it. Probably not. I don't care. I learned a lot!

Now, I just popped mine straight into the freezer. When it was time to cook, I took it out and let it thaw a bit, but you could cook it straight from frozen; just make sure to cover with aluminum foil first. I baked mine at 375F until it hit around 165F degrees internally. I believe from thawed that was an hour and a half in my oven. Obviously that time will change based on your oven. 

I hope you all will enjoy, if you decide to get adventurous in the kitchen! I recommend this on a rainy, slow sort of day, as it is time consuming. 

Have the best day ever!