'Made Man' Lasagna

WARNING: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS EPISODE DO NOT REFLECT THE ABILITIES AND VIEWS OF Mrs. Mitchell. We now return you to your regularly scheduled post.

Hello readers! Mr. Mitchell here to give you a taste of something I have had since I switched over to solid foods.

Ok, maybe a little afterward.

Mom's lasagna was always a favorite. I have no idea where she got the recipe, but it was passed down to me and during college it was a reliable and solid, though time consuming, meal. And then, like Meg and I do with everything, I took the spirit of the recipe and did magical things with it. It is now an even more time consuming recipe, but completely worth it. Expect to spend 60-90 minutes prep, minimum 2 hours rest, 45 minutes cooking and 10 minutes cooling time. This is a great dish for dinner parties or other gatherings as this recipe should make 12 respectable sized servings, however without side dishes cut that number to 6-8. Don't have 11 of your closest friends coming over? (invite us over?) Don't worry, as fantastic as this meal is fresh, it is even better the next day...and the next.... and so on and so forth. I will even give my permission to reheat in the microwave, just don't obliterate it.

Lets be honest, folks. The most important factor in great food is great ingredients. Fresh herbs will always be better than dried, etc, etc. So the biggest changes from Mom's lasagna are based on fresher ingredients, healthier choices, and GARLIC!!! What? You didn't think I'd be allowed to commandeer the blog without gratuitous amounts of garlic did you? Ha! Don't be surprised if someday you see a post on here about her getting a tattoo of a bulb of garlic. Srlsy.

"You want me to put that WHERE?"

Ingredients*:
Meat Sauce:
2 lbs 97 or 99% fat free Ground Turkey
4-5 Cloves of Garlic
1 tbs Crushed Red Pepper
2 tbs mixed fresh chopped herbs: basil, oregano, and Italian parsley.
36 oz Your Favorite Spaghetti Sauce (We're Newman's Own people)
1 small-medium onion
3-4 oz diced mushrooms
Salt (minimum 2 tsp) and Pepper to taste

Ricotta Filling:
15 oz Ricotta
1/2 c Fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
1 egg
2 tbs fresh chopped Italian parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Additionally:
6 Whole Wheat Lasagna noodles
4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan and Chopped Italian Parsley

*Please note, all measurements of herbs are guestimated, and will be further discussed below.

Obligatory ingredient shot.

Part of this dish is timing, it has three separate prepared components that must come together in symphony. The meat sauce is the most complex and time consuming, so let's start there. Begin by dicing the onion and sweat it with some oil in a small skillet.

Mmm sweaty.

Meanwhile, wash and dice your mushrooms. As the onions become translucent and aromatic, add the mushrooms and a bit more oil and sauté the mixture.

In your largest skillet/wok put the ground turkey on med-high heat. Dice all of that wonderful garlic and herbs.

Now smell your hands. Mmmmmm....

Add to the turkey with the crushed red pepper and salt.

Mix and brown the turkey. Drain off any grease with paper towels during cooking and then strain with a colander when done. If you are a big spender and go for the 99% ground turkey you will most likely be able to skip this step.


Combine the onion-mushroom mixture and spaghetti sauce with the cooked turkey. Mix and simmer.

After a few minutes of simmering, taste mixture. Good, eh? Ok so what does it need? You should find a rewarding and explosive menagerie of flavors, sweetness from the turkey and tomato sauce, spice from the red pepper, umami from the mushrooms, full flavor from the herbs and of course, the garlic should stand out. So if you are unable to detect all of these flavors, start adding things. Make sure there is sufficient salt to bring out all of the flavors in the first place. Too sweet? Add salt, pepper and/or red pepper. Too strong onion flavor? Let it simmer more, it should absorb the flavors of the sauce. Too strong garlic flavor? TRICK QUESTION THERE CAN NEVER BE TOO MUCH GARLIC! Add more garlic anyway. The meat sauce should be delicious and able to stand alone flavor wise. If you aren't seriously considering grabbing a soup bowl and a spoon, then you are missing something. Fans of the site would be wise to consider this meat sauce as a filling for the dumplings. But you don't have any to spare today, you have a lasagna craving to satisfy!

At some point between simmering, tasting, and adding more garlic, get a mixing bowl and begin preparing the ricotta mixture.

Step one. Put all ingredients in bowl.

Step two. Mix.

Set aside.

As the meat sauce is coming together, turn heat down to low. Boil your lasagna noodles. And, class, what is the important part of boiling noodles? That's right, little Timmy, copious amounts of salt in the water. We are looking for flavor in the noodles, not just carbs for tomorrows marathon (right?). When it comes to done-ness of your noodles, al dente is of course desired, but when in doubt slightly overdone will be better than underdone because there is enough time for the noodles to dry out between cooking and combining with the other parties, and that is not good eats.

So its looking like we are ready to assemble the dish now. Checklist: meat sauce, noodles, ricotta mixture, and mozzarella cheese. Ok lets do this.

In a lightly greased 9x13 glass casserole dish, lay down 3 lasagna noodles like so.

Now place 1/2 of the ricotta mixture atop the noodles and spread evenly.

2 cups of mozzarella cheese.

1/2 of the meat sauce.

And repeat...

Yeah...

Ok, looking good....

Molto bella!

Top with a dusting of grated Parmesan cheese because... well you really don't need a reason do you.

Cover and rest for at least two hours. I know. Its hard. So very, very hard. But you must! When you have components such as these coming together they must have time to socialize and mingle! I like to refrigerate as long as I can. Today I did the prep work by noon and gave the dish 7 hours to get friendly and come together as one amazing meal.

Do it...

After said waiting period, cook at 375 covered with foil for 35 minutes, remove foil, and cook for an additional 10. If you unwisely choose to not cover with foil, reduce cooking temp to 350 max and cook for 35-40 minutes, but I really don't suggest it. Of course, times vary with altitude and oven and cookware blah blah blah. Point is, this is just to get everything to a nice hot temperature. All of the meat is cooked, so its no longer a safety issue. (If you think one raw-ish egg over 12 servings is an issue, you clearly have your own problems) Once thoroughly heated, remove from oven, place foil back on dish and give it a few minutes to rest. I have increased the meat-to-sauce ratio, and cut down on fat content of the meat, but there was once a "soupy" problem with this recipe and resting helps the meat and noodles absorb any delicious, yet unrefined juices. Chop up a few sprigs of Italian Parsley, and garnish before digging in.

And you will dig in....

Early...

And often...

I personally do not think this needs a side dish. However, bread seems to be required at all Italian meals. So bake you a french loaf 80% done, cut on the bias, lather one side of each slide with melted butter/oil and chop up (can you guess???) garlic and Italian parsley, maybe even rosemary and toast for 3 minutes or so on broil. Cabernet Savignon pairs excellently.

Actually this may have been better than the lasagna itself.

So the next time you need to make a good impression and pull out one hell of a dish, whip up this lasagna and thrill your friends and family. Works especially well with 'the family,' if you's guys know what I'm talking about.

Fugeddaboutit.

I hope you have enjoyed this guest blogging. I enjoy contributing to our meals on a nightly basis, I'm cool with being Robin to her Batman.

She married this.