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Lasagna is a labour of love for me.  It takes a long time so I must be in a kitchen mood to make it but it always pays off.  For a long time I was using my mom’s recipe, which she had in turn got from her mother.  She used to argue with her sister about who made the best lasagna until they both realized they were using grandma’s recipe.

I’ve taken many liberties with that recipe and have never recorded it.  The other night while I was making it I took a photo diary for posterity’s sake.  Here is basically what I do, please take what interests you and take your own liberties, I’d love to learn from you to!

Part 1: The components

I started by browning about a pound of ground beef and half a pound of ground pork.  I added my garlic and onion at this point and then when everything was ready I added 8-10 fresh and very ripe tomatoes.  I get the tomatoes at the grocery store from the 50% off bin because those are the super ripe ones they soon won’t be able to sell.  They are the most jucy and when you are putting them in a sauce they don’t need to be pretty. 

 To this I add pepper, salt, 1/4 cup sugar and fresh herbs.  This time I chose to put in fresh basil from the garden, tyme, and something from the parsley family.

The meat sauce should boil and then be simmering for about the next hour, as you prepare other things.  The next thing to prepare is the cheese layer.  I use a combination of cottage cheese (little more than 750 ml at 1%) and Parmesan cheese (about a cup) mixed with whatever herbs I’ve got.  This time I used the same thyme as I did in the meat sauce.

 My meat sauce has now cooked down to look like a watery spaghetti sauce.  This is the ideal consistency for lasagna as you will need the liquid from the various ingredients to cook your pasta when it is in the oven.

 Part 2: The pasta

I remember quite vividly the moment I realized that pasta didn’t come from a box: I was on an airplane, flying to Mexico to get married and to celebrate Christmas with my family. I was quite bored and found myself flipping through one of the airline magazines.  The cabin lights were dim, many people had fallen asleep but the flight attendants were still serving beverages.  The magazine was full of gift ideas for Christmas, all of which I found quite boring except for one.  The page I ended up reading depicted all the accoutrement one would need to make pasta.  I wondered how I had never heard of anyone making pasta before but shrugged it off with the realization that a dish that I generally find dull could be a fertile field of culinary possibilities. 

I resolved to teach myself to make pasta though it was months later until I actually tried.  As a wedding gift Ryan’s mom had given us a Kitchen Aid Mixer.  While unpacking it I discovered that there were attachments I could get for this fabulous new machine that would help me make pasta.  But these attachments were expensive.  In order to figure out if I really wanted to invest in this new idea I googled ‘how to make fresh pasta’ and came up with a number of videos.  Following their instructions, I quickly discovered this was a mistake, but nonetheless I ended up with a pasta that I really liked and red palms from hand-kneading the dough.  Ryan and I were both stunned that we could have just finished a large plate of pasta and it didn’t feel heavy in our stomachs.  I asked for the attachments for my next birthday and have been making pasta ever since.

They are such simple ingredients: flour, eggs, water/oil and salt.  The exact proportions depend on the type of flour you are using but today I’m using 1 cup brown flour and 2 cups white flour, three eggs and whatever is necessary from the other ingredients.  I beat/stir these together in with the paddle on the Kitchen Aid until they are mixed and clumpy but able to stick together.  This usually happens with the oil and/or water but I can only say you will gauge which and when with experience.

 When the clumps will hold together I kneed them with the kneading attachment.  Sometimes additional water are needed depending on the moisture of the dough.

After kneading I wrap it in plastic for it to rest before I roll it.  Rolling the dough is simply feeding it through the rollers.  This works if it is not too thick and not too moist.  After reaching my desired thickness I hang the pasta on coat hangers until I am ready to use it.  You can see here that this pasta is thin enough to see through.

 Part 3: Assembly

With the pasta and the components prepared the last step in lasagna is the assembly.  I begin by lining my pan with some of the more liquid parts of the meat sauce.  This is important because the first layer is pasta and if the pasta doesn’t have enough liquid to soak up at the bottom of the pan it will stick to the bottom and when cooked it will be difficult to get out of the pan. 

Following the liquid the layers are: pasta, meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, spinach, repeat pasta, meat sauce, cottage cheese, pasta, minimal meat sauce and then Parmesan cheese to finish it off.

 

 And once you have repeated the final lasagna looks like a masterpiece.

I began adding the spinach only recently and really like the colour and stability it adds to the final dish.  This time I didn’t steam it ahead of time and the cooked lasagna was not too watery.  The proportions I gave here makes two dishes this size of lasagna.  I made one for Trish and Chris and kept one for Ryan and I.  I often freeze one but I was so looking forward to eating it I didn’t get a picture of the final cooked one.  Oh well, I’ll have to do that next time!