Delicious, Two Sauce, Mama’s Lasagna

I first made this dish 22 years ago while visiting son Rhett’s family when he was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany (US Army).  Then I made it again in 2010 and after you read this post you may see why I don’t make it often.  The recipe comes from “Jackson Hole Ala Carte,” a cookbook put out in 1986 by the Jackson Hole Alliance and still available to buy on the web.

The other day, Bev suggested we make it while we were snowed in but we didn’t have and couldn’t go get the ingredients we needed.  So this week, while we were only rained in, we went to the store then made it for our Friday card group.  I followed the recipe except as noted and the recipe is divided into four separate parts.

Red Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion

½ cup finely chopped carrot

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ cup butter

28 oz Italian style tomatoes & juice

15 oz can tomatoes (added by Larry)

½ cup dry red wine

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp dried basil

1 ea Bay leaf

1 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp dried thyme

½ tsp sugar

To taste salt and pepper

1 lb ground chuck

½ lb mushrooms, sliced

1 lb Italian sausage, cooked and thinly sliced

Directions:

1. In a heavy 12” sauté pan, cook the onion, carrot, and garlic until tender. Stir in the tomatoes, wine, herbs, and seasonings. Simmer for 1½ hours, partially covered until sauce is thick.

2. Meanwhile, brown the chuck in a large skillet, add mushrooms and sauté until tender. Stir into the completed sauce along with the cooked sausage. Set aside.

This is the finished sauce.

White Sauce

Ingredients:

6 tbsp butter

6 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

1 cup whipping cream

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne

Directions:

Make a roux from the butter and flour, remove from heat and gradually whisk in the milk and cream. When smooth, add the spices, return to heat and bring to a boil for a minute. Remove from heat and set aside with plastic wrap directly on the surface for skim prevention (I just made it last when I was ready to assemble).

Lasagna Filling

2 cups ricotta or cottage cheese

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ cup grated parmesan

4 ea egg yolks

2 tbsp chopped green onion

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 clv garlic, minced

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

18 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente, drained and patted dry

Directions:

Combine all ingredients, except noodles, and spread about 2 Tbsp of filling on each noodle and roll up jelly roll style – 18 rolls needed.  I found the best tool to spread the filling on the noodle was my index finger. Don’t spread it clear to the noodle edge and about ½” from the outside end, then roll them just tight enough to force it almost to the edges. 

This is the stuffing process - I laid out all of the noodles and divided the filling between them. 

Here they are all rolled up.

To Assemble

1. Preheat oven to 350 and butter an 11"x11" baking dish.

2. Spread ½ of the white sauce in bottom the dish.

3. Place the noodle rolls on end in the dish.

4. Top the rolls with the red sauce, the remaining white sauce, ½ cup mozzarella, ½ cup parmesan and 2 tbsp parsley.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

The Verdict:

Just as before, it was delicious and everyone loved it but I’ve decided I’ll just make the layered version from now on and maybe add the white sauce.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

01/26/24 meal date

Beef Tri-Tip Roast, Reverse Sear

When I go to the grocery store, I generally browse the seafood and high end meat case and during a recent visit, I spied a rarely seen (in these parts) tri-tip roast, so I scarfed it up.  After considering several preparation methods, I decided I would use a combination of methods I haven’t used before - dry brine and reverse-sear using the oven.

Bang Bang Shrimp Pasta

This post was going to start with how I doubled Trish’s recipe for Bang, Bang Shrimp Pasta from her “Mom On Time Out Blog” to serve to our Friday card group.  However, three days after the Mon/Tue six inch snow followed by freezing temps, our driveway still looked like this – the foot prints are from my trips to the RV to check on things. 

Baked Chicken Wings

Bev came home with a package of chicken wings and said she’d like to try them baked and I just happen to have saved the recipe for Baked Chicken Wings from Dennis on his “Ask Chef Dennis” blog a few days previously.  Our package contained five pounds of nice sized wings so I increased the ingredient amounts by 2½ times. To get the recipe below.

Not So Spicy Beef Stir Fry

I recently cut steaks from a whole beef tenderloin and ended up with a pound of tail meat so Bev suggested we turn it into stir fry.  I looked back thru my blog posts and found several for beef stir fry and two that had great reviews.  Friend, Russ, commented that our most recent one “may have been the best meal he has had at our place.”  But since we just made it last year, I opted for a recipe from 2012 that got this comment - “I thought it was very good and Bev said it may have been our best ever stir fry.”

Not Exactly Cowboy or Cincinnati Chili & Prime Rib Finale

I’ve been trying to make Sundays a pasta day but with plenty of leftovers in the fridge, I thought I’d have to miss this week,  but when I opened up my email that morning, there was Chef Lea Ann’s post for Stove-Top Cowboy Spaghetti  with a pic of chili over pasta.  So, I read the post and realized my chili didn’t fit her recipe nor did it fit Cincinnati chili which contains many of the flavors in Jerk Seasoning (eg. cinnamon, cloves, allspice).

So, I’ll just call mine "Pasta Topped, Chili, Onion, and Cheddar."

Loaded Chili Baked Potato

When I saw Pam’s recipe for Loaded Chili Baked Potato on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog I thought it would be perfect for our Friday group on a cold winter day.  Rather than duplicate Pam’s recipe here, I’ll just refer you to the link above for the recipe and Pam’s great pics – as always.  We began the meal preparation by making a batch of chili on Friday morning using our normal recipe.

A Few More Delicious Holiday Meals & One For Luck

We had quite a bit of the prime rib left from Christmas dinner and one use was French Dip Sandwiches.  I made them by the recipe that Daughter, Kathy, uses in her café in Nebraska.  I sliced the meat fairly thin and took out the fat.  Then I piled it to the shape of the bread, topped with cheese, and gave it a 60 second nuke to warm it.

A Few Random Meals Around The Holidays

Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by my blog this past year.

Here are some meals we’ve made recently but I didn’t want to do an entire post on.  The first one is breakfast hash that was inspired by Pam’s post for Skillet Potato Hash WithMushrooms and Bacon on her "For The Love Of Cooking" blog.  I made it to use some mushrooms we had in the fridge and some leftover boiled potatoes.  I generally followed Pam’s recipe except I just used bacon grease rather than cooking bacon and I started with cooked potatoes.  I topped the hash with three small eggs for a delicious breakfast.