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Food

Lush layers

Lasagna, with its complex flavors of basil and garlic, tomato and sausage, spinach and cheese, is a crowd-pleasing keeper.

By JANET K. KEELER
Published February 21, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Basil [Times photos: Martha Rial] Spinach Grated parmesan cheese Garlic Lasagna noodle Tomatoes Sausage

Lasagna is good entertaining food.

Strike that. Lasagna is just plain good food.

Stripes of flavorful sauce, meat, multiple cheeses and often spinach run between sheets of pasta. In the oven, the cheese inside goes all bubbly and the layer on top becomes crispy brown. It's hard to find a more comforting comfort food.

When dinner is homemade lasagna, everyone is gleeful, though health-conscious diners make mental notes to carefully monitor the next day's intake. Even a vegetable lasagna is loaded with calories, thanks to all that cheese.

You can lessen the blow by using part-skim milk cheese and substituting chicken or turkey for beef or making a vegetarian version. A red sauce, typical in southern Italy, has less fat than a creamy white sauce of milky Bolognese, a hallmark of a northern Italian lasagna.

In the United States, the notion of a basic lasagna generally includes meat. That's a good version to tackle to learn the basics. It's not difficult to make, especially when using oven-ready pasta, but there are some tricks to make yours turn out sort of close to Mama's.

My recipe for Meat and Spinach Lasagna, inspired by a quick version in a 1997 Bon Apettit, gets a flavor boost from Italian sausage. It includes shortcuts that fit the way we cook now, including using frozen spinach to bolster nutrition.

The wolverines at my house can't tell the difference from the long-cooking version and the one that's so much easier. That's what happens when you wolf down dinner.

From experience

The first lasagna I ever made came from a cookbook that cost $2.45, far less than the multitude of ingredients. The splattered page tells me it was a much-used recipe and testifies to my messy nature in the kitchen.

The cookbook, published in 1975, suggests making fresh egg noodles, which I never did. I thought, and I still do, that simmering the meat sauce for 90 minutes was plenty of effort. In those days I cleared the calendar to cook, and a recipe that took the better part of Sunday was so much the better.

I include that recipe for Lasagna Belmonte here because it is a tried-and-true winner. This is the recipe to use to impress a date or make the in-laws your forever-fans. It's not the recipe to make when you're short on time.

The meat sauce includes robust red wine, and simmering it long and low with onion, garlic, ground beef, tomato sauce and paste plus dried oregano leaves transforms it into a deep flavor note. Be careful when tasting, because you might not stop. And when the sauce is mixed with mild ricotta - even before baking - a nibble will send you into orbit.

For busy cooks, something quicker is in order.

A simple start

One-step Meat and Spinach Lasagna is a clip-and-save recipe, especially if you don't have a lasagna recipe worth noting. My wolverines ate it three nights in a row and never complained once.

It calls for widely available oven-ready lasagna noodles, which need moisture and time to rehydrate. Without the right amount of either, the pasta remains brittle and does not absorb the wonderful accompanying flavors.

Working with the pasta might be the most challenging aspect of making lasagna. Back in the day, I cooked the noodles first, an extra step that required cooking and cooling time, plus some noodles broke apart. I don't do that anymore.

Make sure the oven-ready noodles are covered completely with sauce. This is especially important on the top layer. Also, let the assembled dish sit for about 30 minutes before baking so some of the liquid can soften the pasta.

Some people soak the pasta in very hot water for about 10 minutes before using. That's a good alternative.

The other important step is to cover the lasagna tightly with heavy-duty foil spritzed with a nonstick spray to prevent sticking. The trapped moisture will further soften the noodles. Remove the foil for the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking so the top layer of cheese browns.

Beyond that, just follow the recipe.

One warning: It will seem like the ingredients are too much for a 9- by 13- by 2-inch pan. Press gingerly on the top layer of noodles to pack and ladle on the last bit of sauce gently. It will fit. The foil covering helps keep it all in, but it's best to use a baking sheet underneath to capture drips.

Let the assembled lasagna sit for at least 15 minutes before serving to prevent the cheese from oozing out.

Then get on the phone and invite the in-laws over. They may never leave, whether you've cooked all day or just part of it.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at 727 893-8586 or jkeeler@sptimes.com

About this series

Tried and True

Tried and True is a monthly feature focusing on classic recipes with instruction on how to make them at home. The techniques aren't difficult and once mastered can be used to prepare other recipes.

Coming in March: Quiche Lorraine.

Entree

Meat and Spinach Lasagna

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef

3/4 pound Italian bulk sausage

1 26-ounce jar thick spaghetti or marinara sauce, with roasted garlic

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

Oven-ready lasagna noodles

1 box frozen spinach, thawed

1 15-ounce container part-skim ricotta cheese

1 pound mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Additional spaghetti sauce, optional

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil and saute onion and garlic with salt in heavy skillet over medium heat until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add beef and sausage and cook, breaking up meats with back of spoon, about 4 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from heat.

- Combine spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes and basil in large bowl. Set aside. Squeeze excess water from spinach and mix with ricotta cheese until blended evenly.

- To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups sauce mixture in bottom of 9- by 13-inch glass baking dish. Arrange layer of noodles, slightly overlapping if necessary, on top of sauce. Spread half of ricotta-spinach mixture over noodles. Sprinkle with half of mozzarella, half of meat and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Top with 11/2 cups sauce.

- Repeat layering with noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, meats and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

- At this point, it may look like your dish cannot hold any more, but gently lay another layer of noodles over the top, pressing slightly without breaking the noodles. Spoon remaining sauce over, covering noodles completely.

- Let sit for 30 minutes so that the noodles can absorb some of the liquid. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Cover tightly with heavy-duty foil that has been lightly coated with a nonstick spray. Place on baking sheet.

- Bake until noodles are tender and lasagna is heated through, about 1 hour; uncover for the final 10 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes uncovered. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Rewarm, covered, in a 350-degree oven about 45 minutes.) Cut lasagna into squares and serve with additional heated red sauce if desired.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Source: Janet K. Keeler, Times Food and Travel Editor

Entree

Lasagna Belmonte

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil or salad oil

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 clove garlic, minced or mashed

2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

1/2 cup each dry red wine and water (or 1 cup water)

1 teaspoon each salt and oregano

1/2 teaspoon each pepper and sugar

12 ounces lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions

1 pound (2 cups) ricotta cheese or small-curd cottage cheese

1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

- In a large frying pan that has a cover, saute onion in oil until soft; add beef and garlic and cook, stirring, until meat is brown and crumbly. Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, wine and water. Add salt, oregano, sugar and pepper, stirring until mixed. Cover pan and simmer slowly for 1 1/2 hours.

- To assemble, arrange about 1/3 of the cooked noodles in the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. (Lay one layer of noodles lengthwise in the dish and the next layer crosswise. Alternate this way as you continue to arrange the dish.) Spread 1/3 of the meat sauce over the noodles; top with 1/3 of the ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers twice. Top with the Parmesan.

- Bake uncovered in preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Source: Sunset Italian Cook Book by the editors of Sunset Books and Sunset magazine (Lane Publishing, 1975).

[Last modified February 20, 2007, 10:18:30]