Recipe #49: Lasagna

Recipe: Lasagna
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 2 hrs 10 min
Ease: 7
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: 5
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I have been afraid of lasagna for a long time.

It intimidated me.

It haunted me.

My mother makes great lasagna and she is constantly perfecting her recipe.  She also is the one who reminds me when I think I'm going to make lasagna on a whim that it is an ordeal.

Ugh.  Who was the mother who coined the phrase, "Mother knows best"?

Because she was so right.

Note to self: Lasagna is not a meal to make when you are starving.  Lasagna is not a meal to make if you are in a hurry.  Lasagna is not a meal to make if you are impatient.

Perhaps this is why I have waited so long to make it.

Naturally, I chose to make it on a night where I was starving, in a hurry, and feeling rather impatient.

Thankfully, I had a cute cooking companion who was not one of those things.

The recipe calls for 10 oz of lasagna noodles--which somehow ended up being more than necessary.  In reality, it should have called for eight lasagna noodles.  This worked out in the end for me though because Hubby has a complete aversion to cottage cheese.  Originally, I wasn't going to cater to this picky nature---especially since cottage and/or ricotta cheese are essentials to true Italian lasagna. Despite this, I decided the extra noodles could be used to make him a mini lasagna made with only mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Here's something stupid that has happened several times to me during this recipe challenge (and let's be honest, during several of my cooking adventures over the past seven years): I forget to plan out how long certain things need to cook.

Such as the meat, seasonings, and tomato mixture that need to simmer for 45 minutes.

45 minutes!  

When you are hungry, 45 minutes is an eternity.

I tried to bide my time by prepping every other aspect of the lasagna including readying the pan and the cheese mixture.

But then, of course, once the lasagna was assembled it needed to cook for 35 to 45 minutes.

Impatience won out after the lasagna was finished cooking. As with most hot and potentially soupy items, lasagna should, and PW directs to let it, sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

I waited about 10 seconds.

Can you tell?

Regardless, the flavors were delicious.  The meat mixture was perfect...did I mention that I wanted to eat it with a spoon from the pan as it was cooking? It smelled divine.

The only change I would make is to add ricotta cheese to the mix.  Ricotta is amazing and completely necessary in lasagna.  

No matter what Hubby says.