Lasagnas

Remember when I posted my Italian cooking day and promised the Lasagna Recipe and Calzone instruction– well, I finally got my act together and here they are.  We’ll start with the Lasagna.  This recipe made 1-11x17 pan and 2-8x8 pans.  Scale back if you’re only cooking for one meal.  If you're on a vegetarian track, simply substitute all the ground beef for TVP - or substitute in chopped veggies of your choice - broccoli, cauliflower and spinach work great.

TM Lasagna

Meat filling:

2 pounds Ground Beef

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cups Textured Vegetable Protein

Water

Marinara Sauce

Cheese Filling:

1-32 oz container of Ricotta Cheese

1-24 oz container of Cottage Cheese

1-6oz block of Parmesan cheese, grated with the largest side of grater.

8 cups shredded Mozzarella Cheese

2-16 oz boxes of Lasagna noodles, uncooked

8 cups HV Marinara Sauce

Directions:

1.  Brown ground beef and onion in large skillet.  When cooked, add TVP and water.  Once TVP expands, add marinara and allow mixtaure to simmer 5-10 minutes. Add additional water if it cooks down too much.



2.  Grate parmesan cheese and combine with cottage cheese and ricotta. (Mozzarella gets layered when the Lasagna is assembled.)



3. Layer Lasagnas: Put enough marinara to cover the bottom of the pan.  Lay uncooked noodles on top of sauce.



Spread a thin layer of cheese mixture on top of the noodles and then follow with the meat mixture and a thin layer of Mozzarella.



Add a bit of extra sauce and then another layer of noodles.  Repeat process until pan is full.  The extra sauce is the liquid that will cook the noodles as they bake.

Bake at 375 covered with foil for 45-60 minutes.  Remove foil and allow cheese to reach golden brown once sauce is bubbling in the middle of the pan.  Baking times will vary depending on pan size.

And tomorrow: Calzones!  Click here for a printable Lasagna recipe.

Calzones

For the calzones, I used this crust recipe.  I rolled out the dough (too thin might I add – make sure to keep it a good ¼” thick)  added extra cheese mixture from the Lasagna, Mozerella and sliced up Meatballs.  I closed up the dough by moistening with small bit of water and baked them at 400 for 20-25 minutes.  We ate them with marinara.  We reheated the extras in the toaster oven a couple days later and they were just as good as the first time around!