Lasagna

Today it's lasagna!

This lasagna recipe seems to have been in my repertoire for eons. My oldest sister Teresa gave it to me at lease 15 years ago. It's a wonderful stand-by for entertaining because it can be made days before the event, frozen, and then reheated to a higher level of perfection. And the best part . . . the cook is freed from the kitchen and available to participate in the engaging conversation around the table. The only problem is when you realize you've used it with all your dinner party friends and that it will be a long long long time before you can pull out again.

This picture shows the goal.

This picture shows my inspiration - my beautiful bella niece Sarah. My heart is singing an aria as I look at this photo!!

Not so much when I look at this photo. My heart is singing, but more a song like The Bare Necessities.

In case you're wondering, my fashion is an Eet Smakelijk apron with shearling slippers designed by Who Knows.

My hair style is the ever classic pon-ya tail-ya.

There are three sets of ingredients for this recipe.

First, the meat section - 1 pound of Italian sausage. My favorite is Whole Food's spicy Italian sausage. However, when cooking for others, if I'm not sure as to their spicy tolerance, I use half spicy and half regular Italian sausage. I once tried Andoullie - no ma-goo-sta! The flavor conflicted and overpowered the recipe.

Brown the sausage and drain the fat.

The next set of ingredients is for the sauce.

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon basil
• dash of garlic powder
• 1 12-ounce can of tomato paste
• 1 large can of diced tomatoes

Mix all the sauce ingredients with the sausage and simmer for 30 minutes.

Notice that I have only used one pan so far. Nice!

The next set of ingredients is for the cheese layer and the noodles.

• One box of no bake noodles (makes this process much easier)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (The type shown in the picture doesn't seem to have any ill effect on the final result and it's easier and more cost effective than fresh Parmesan)
• 1 large carton of cottage cheese (I use a low-fat version.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound shredded mozzarella (I use shredded for ease of assembly.)

Beat the eggs then add all the ingredients listed above except the noodles and mozzarella.

It should look like this beautiful clumpy creamy concoction.

Now it's time to assemble in a 9 by 13 pan.

First layer - noodles . . .

Second layer - cheese mixture . . .

Third layer - a sprinkling of mozzarella . . .

Fourth layer - sauce.

Repeat two more times.

Note to self - make more sauce!

I always seem to run out of sauce! I should change this recipe by increasing the sauce by a half.

When I run short on sauce by placing too much in the middle layers, I check the refrigerator for the ever stand by jar sauce that can be used to embellish the top.

Thank the god of food emergencies, there was.

Voila!

Why I like this recipe:

• It makes my taste buds sing.
• It's relatively easy to make.
• It doesn't require unusual ingredients.
• It doesn't require costly ingredients.
• It doesn't require too many dishes, so it doesn't require a lot of clean up.
• It freezes well so it's an excellent dinner-party-with-a-non-exhausted-host meal.
• It makes my taste bud sing!

This is a mini version. Just as tasty!!! Size doesn't matter, right?

This recipe was for made for my friends, the sisters (can you tell?) Kristin, Cindy and Linda. Fortunately, Cindy and Linda were stranded for about a week in Chicago due to the volcano that grounded flights to their home country of Norway. Too bad for Norway, good for Chicago, home of their youth.