Mom's Lasagna

I haven't made this yet, but I'm going to blog the recipe so that I don't lose it in my email archives. This lasagna is so good I really can't eat anyone else's lasagna, it just tastes inferior.

From Mom. No website involved.

Ingredients:

12 lasagna noodles

1 lbs. ground beef

Chopped onion, to taste

Chopped bell pepper, to taste

3 small cans tomato sauce

Thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, other herbs to taste

1 tsp. salt

2 lbs. ricotta cheese

1 lbs. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 C. shredded parmesan cheese

1 tsp. salt

1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Boil 12 lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse thoroughly with cold water and lay out in a single layer on waxed paper to drain.

2. Scramble ground beef, drain, stir in and cook until limp minced onion and bell pepper to taste. Stir in tomato sauce and season to taste with herbs and salt.

3. Combine cheeses, additional parsley, salt, and beaten egg.

4. Spray the bottom of a glass 9x13 dish with oil. Spread a thin layer of sauce then place three unbroken noodles lengthwise in the pan. Divide the filling into three equal portions and spread one portion carefully on the noodles. I find it best to distribute the filling in small bits all over then very carefully spread the bits with a small knife to form an even layer. Carefully spread a thin layer of sauce over the filling. Put three more noodles in the dish. You can use your broken noodles for the inner layers. Repeat with the filling and sauce until you have made three layers. Put your last three unbroken noodles on the top. Cover with the remaining sauce.

5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

6. Remove the foil and decorate the lasagna with some parmesean cheese. Bake uncovered an additional 15 minutes.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 10 - 15 minutes before serving. I know you will be tempted to serve it sooner than that, but the wait really does make the lasagna easier to cut and serve. Enjoy!

Pizza Rustica

This I made for the Robber hoping he would love me forever. Instead, he just slathered this with catsup. Well he loves me forever anyway. I was proud of myself for making this recipe and having it turn out pretty much exactly like it should. The crust and the filling were both perfect!

Notes: I had to add serious amounts of flour to this dough while kneading it to make the correct product. I don't know if it is better to just not add as much water, or add more flour while kneading? At any rate, if you follow the directions you will get a very gummy pre-kneaded dough and will have to grapple with that mess.

I baked mine in an 8 x 13 and a 9 x 9 pan because I didn't have a 10 x 15 and I still had lots of dough left over, which I froze and hope to use for empanadas, calzones, or pizza in the future.

I didn't buy the diced form of some of the meats, and in the future I definitely would do so because it was a mess trying to cut up the sliced versions of the meat. It may be cheaper to do it that way also-- as this cost a pretty penny to make!

This feeds an ARMY-- or a Bob. So halving the recipe would make it cheaper and a lot more feasible, you could probably bake it in an 8 x 13 pan. Apparently this is an Italian Easter recipe. I guess it feeds and ARMY or a large Italian family.

This is a lot of work, but delicious! And good cold too, you can just take in a slice and eat it without warming it up and it is good that way as well as-- I hate to say this-- with catsup. Shudders!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/dining/30feedrex.html?ref=dining

Adapted from Carlo’s Bakery, Hoboken, N.J.

Time: 21/2 hours, plus time for cooling

Ingredients:

FOR THE DOUGH:

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound chilled salted butter, cut into large pieces
5 large eggs, beaten

FOR THE FILLING:

12 ounces prosciutto, in 1/4-inch dice
8 ounces boiled ham, in 1/4-inch dice
8 ounces pepperoni, in 1/4-inch dice
8 ounces soppressata, in 1/4-inch dice
8 ounces mozzarella, in 1/4-inch dice
8 ounces provolone, in 1/4-inch dice
2 pounds ricotta
4 ounces grated pecorino Romano
10 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pepper

1 large egg, beaten, for brushing crust.

Directions:

1. For the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together 6 cups flour and the salt. Using a pastry cutter, large fork, or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add eggs and knead for 1 minute. Add about 1 1/4 cups ice water, a little at a time, to form a cohesive dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it forms a large smooth ball, about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.

2. For the filling: Mix the meats, cheeses, the 10 eggs and pepper in a large bowl.

3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Divide the dough into two pieces: two-thirds for the bottom crust and one-third for the top. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger portion of the dough into a rectangle to line the bottom and sides of a 10-by-15-inch glass baking dish, with some overhang. Add the filling and smooth it lightly. Moisten the edges of the dough with a little water.

4. Roll out the remaining dough to cover the top of the dish with some overhang. Trim off excess dough and crimp the edges to seal. Poke several sets of holes across the top with a fork. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush top and edges with the beaten egg, then return to the oven until golden brown, another 45 minutes. Let pie cool completely before serving.

Yield: One 10-by-15-inch pie.

Mom's Homemade Pizza

Even better than the biscuits, this sent Robber off into his own kind of Robber-land. On my pizza I had pepperoni and pepper and onion, but Robber had pepperoni and pepper and onion and ham and pineapple and mushroom and everything. He was so happy. He raved on and on about the crust. I guess we'll be doing this one again...

To make 2 14-inch pizzas:

Ingredients (crust):

1 T. sugar
1 T. yeast
1 C. very warm water
1/4 powdered milk
2 eggs
3 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 T. olive oil

(Can also make a simpler dough just using flour, salt, yeast, water, oil)

Directions:

1) Pour water over sugar. Dissolve yeast. When foamy, add milk. Alternate 1/2 c additions of flour with salt, eggs, fat. Knead 10 minutes. Allow to rise until dough has doubled. At this point you can punch it down and put it in the fridge overnight to use the next day or move forward.

2) Divide the dough in two and pat it out into greased 14-inch pizza pans. Brush them with olive oil and sprinkle them with parmesan cheese.

3) Put the pizzas in an oven preheated to 400F. Bake them for 10 minutes, switching their positions halfway through. During that time, mix:

8 oz can tomato sauce
salt
pepper
herbs of your choice: Mom uses thyme, oregano (sometimes marjoram instead), basil, and sometimes parsley.

4) When the crusts are out, spread the sauce evenly over the two of them. Sprinkle on grated cheese (1 pound of mozzerella, 1/4 pound cheddar, mixed). Put on pepperonis or peppers and onions or whatnot.

5) Put them back in the oven for about 15 minutes. Switch their positions halfway through. Remove and eat after they have cooled just a little bit!

Sus' Salad and Dressing

I dreamed about this salad with its dressing, it was that good. We had it at Thanksgiving and it was amazing, I could have just eaten the salad and been a happy camper. These directions come from SLO, who got the recipe from Sus, the sister-in-law of her current Manfriend. I love the extended world.

Salad:

Romaine lettuce
Lots of avocado
Plums
Candied/sugared pecans (I browned some pecans in a pan, added a lot of brown sugar, took it off before they were burnt--awesome)

S. also added some fresh mozzarella. She adds:

I might add bananas next time. Maybe pears. Or golden raisins? Another vegetable? Something.

The Salad Dressing:

One part fresh squeezed lemon juice (with some pulp, even)
One part olive oil
Healthy handful of brown sugar (dark!)
Fresh ground pepper to taste


I'm going to try this dressing out with LIMES this week!