Amber's Lasagna

It amazes me we do not yet have a recipe for lasagna on RFL yet! I've been making it often recently, and I think I am moving towards perfecting a recipe. That's the trouble with lasagna, is that there is so many different ways to make it, that it is hard to put it all down in one recipe. Here is a method I have cobbled together from a few different recipes, and it seems to be consistently yummy. The real secret to delicious lasagna is the sauce, so that is what you will be spending most of your time making in this recipe.

What's in it
1 package no-boil lasagna noodles
1 bunch chopped fresh basil (divided)
oregano and other preferred italian spices
1 onion, chopped
several cloves garlic, minced (divided)
1 can marinara sauce (28 oz) or a couple jars of your favorite pasta sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 pound uncooked italian sausage, removed from casing and chopped (can choose sweet, hot or cheesy herb, etc)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
lots of fresh spinach (at least one bag, if you are buying bagged, and don't forget to wash!)
2 blocks grated havarti cheese (or a mixture of havarti and mozzarella)
1 cup fresh grated parmesean cheese
optional: 1-2 cups cottage cheese

How it's made
Start by making the sauce. In a dutch oven or stock pot, heat olive oil and saute the onion, garlic (reserve some garlic for later) and sausage, until sausage is browned and onions are translucent, season with salt. Then add half the chopped basil and other italian seasonings you have on hand (oregano, thyme, chili flakes, etc). Saute until basil is wilted. Add sauce and tomatoes and bring to simmer. Simmer on low for at least a half hour, to blend the flavors.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients: Combine shredded cheeses in a bowl. Saute garlic in olive oil in a skillet. Add sliced mushrooms and cook until water is evaporated from them, and they are mostly cooked (do not over cook). Add spinach and saute until spinach is wilted.

Once all ingredients are prepared, set up assembly line of noodles, sauce, mushroom/spinach, cheese, chopped basil. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees, and pull out your large lasagna casserole dish. Spread small amount of sauce on bottom of pan, then layer noodles, sauce, mushroom/spinach, cheese and basil. You will be able to make three layers, but be sure to reserve sauce and cheese for very top (4th layer). It helps to apply even pressure to noodles once you lay them down, to compress all ingredients together, just try not to crack the noodles. Your top layer should just be sauce, and have some cheese set aside to sprinkle on top, later. Cover pan with foil (tight) and bake for at least a half hour, until bubbly. Remove foil, sprinkle cheese on top, and bake for another 10 minutes or so until cheese is melted and browned a bit. Remove from oven and let sand at least 20 minutes before serving.

The beauty of lasagna is you can add or subtract ingredients as you desire. You can add bell peppers or other veggies into the mushroom/spinach mixture. Or change up the cheese options. You can layer in sliced hard boiled eggs, as well. For a little more heat, use hot italian sausage and add more chili flakes to sauce. If you don't want to use sausage you can use ground beef. You can also make a huge batch of sauce and use more later for pasta or stuffed shells. Or freeze for next time.

Minestrone Soup

As daylight savings kicked into gear this November, and we all 'fell back', I immediately went into 'one soup a week' mode. I have some great standbys like Tortilla Soup, Pozole, Veggie Chowder, Thai Dumpling Soup and Tom Ka Gai. But then I realized I absolutely love Minestrone, and had never made it before (as far as I can remember). Being Italian, I realized I had been ignoring my roots, and fell into the belief minestrone only came from restaurants and my Grandma Nonna. My beloved Nonna is no longer alive to ask for a recipe, so I looked through all my cookbooks, and put a recipe together from a few different sources, mostly Joy of Cooking and The Silver Palate Good Times cookbooks. On the first go I vastly underestimated the power of pasta, but by the second and third rounds I think I have the soup dialed. Here's what I came up with...

What's in it

olive oil

chopped carrots*

chopped celery

chopped onion

minced garlic

1 sprig fresh rosemary

sweet italian sausage (uncooked, casing removed)

salt

shredded cabbage or chopped kale

chopped basil

4-10 C chicken broth

28 oz can diced tomatoes

16 oz cannellini beans (white kidney), rinsed through

chopped zucchini

other optional additions (add with zucchini): bell pepper, green beans, parsley, parmesan rind

orzo or other small pasta noodle (macaroni, small tortellini, parfelles etc)

garnish with fresh grated parmesan and ground pepper

*I don't give any measurements, because what I use always comes out with a giganitic pot of soup, so if you want something more manageable it wouldn't help you. If you need recommendation, do one or two of each veggie (and 1/2 to 1 onion) with a half or whole pound sausage (or bacon, or pancetta).

How it's made

Prep all your veggies then heat olive oil (1-2 Tbl) in a large ceramic coated dutch oven or large stock pot. Add sausage and break into little pieces with your stirring spoon, cook in oil until browned. Add onion, celery, carrot and garlic add dashed of salt and saute until softened. Add rosemary (whole) and put cabbage/kale and basil on top of the cooked veggies, letting it steam on top for a few minutes before mixing in. Cook until wilted then add canned tomato, rinsing inside of can with water and adding it as well. Bring to a simmer, then add chicken broth and parmesan rind then bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add beans and zucchini. If you want to speed up this part of the process, heat chicken broth and canned tomato in a pot separate so it is hot when added. Simmer until zucchini is al dente, then add your pasta. Go very conservative, it grows to about 10 times its size, especially if you don't eat the soup right away. Kind of like the magic growing dinosaurs - just add water. I use orzo because it is so small to begin with, and for a big pot of soup I use 1/4 to 1/3 cup. Simmer your soup until the pasta is cooked, then serve with crusty bread.

Fettucine with Crispy Garlic, Sage and Sausage

Whenever I see a recipe I want, I cut it out and paste it in a notebook. I started doing this years ago and now I've nearly filled it up. It's not organized in any way, but I've memorized the order of the recipes from flipping through them so many times. When I need to make something, I scan through all of the recipes until I find a few that sound good. Usually I need someone else to help me make the final decision.

This is a recipe I clipped from Bon Appetit awhile ago that kept catching my eye. The first couple of times I saw it, I ended up making something else, but this one wouldn't let me go until I made it. It was rich and delicious--and a welcome departure from our default tomato sauce pasta.

• 3/4 pound egg fettuccine (we couldn't find egg fettucine, so we used another egg pasta)
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/4 cup olive oil (less would be fine)
  
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced (Definitely consider using way more if you like garlic)
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage
• 1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausages, casings removed (we substituted cooked spicy Italian sausage and it was delicious)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper (optional)
• 1 cup (approx. 3 ounces) grated Asiago cheese (maybe more)

1. Boil your pasta in a large pot of lightly salted water according to manufacturer's instructions.
2. Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon butter with oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add garlic slices and saute until they've achieved desired crispy golden deliciousness (about 45 seconds to a minute). Using a slotted spoon, remove garlic and set aside.
3. Increase heat to medium high. Add the sage and stir until beginning to crisp-around 10 seconds (although a little longer/crispier would be good, too). Add sausage and saute until browned/crispy in spots.
4. Drain pasta and add to the skillet with sage and sausage. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle with crushed red peppers and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss the pasta to mix all ingredients.
5. Serve topped with crispy garlic and grated asiago cheese. (We actually mixed some of the cheese into the pasta while it was still in the skillet, so it melted in. Tasty!)