Simple Marinara and Luscious Lasagna
As is the custom in our family, birthday celebrations go on for days. Cherie's birthday was a couple of days ago and tonight we are having the families over for Cherie's favorite lasagna. I know you can buy very good marinara for making lasagna at places like Trader Joe's and AJ's but I just can't fight the urge to make it from scratch. We are serving at least 14 people tonight so I doubled this and it worked out well. My marinara is a merge from my Mom's recipe and some of the recipes I have seen prepared on the Food Network, especially Giada and Maria Batali.
Murph's Marinara
Ingredients
Olive Oil
2 Cans Whole San Marzano Tomatoes
1 Large Can San Marzano Pureed Tomatoes
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
2 Medium Onions
6 Cloves Garlic
2 Medium Carrots
2 Stalks Celery
2 Bay Leaves
2 tsp Dried Basil
Salt, Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
Begin heating your favorite sauce pot prior to covering the bottom with olive oil. I like to bring the pot up to about a medium heat very slowly and I don't add the olive oil until just prior to adding my chopped vegetables.
Finely chop onions, carrots, celery and garlic and set aside on a large cutting board or in prep bowls. I recently bought a mini Proctor Silex food processor and use it constantly. It was under $10 is about 6 inches tall and works fantastically well on carrots in this recipe. If you don't have one you're really missing out. Super easy to store in a nearby cabinet, easy to operate and simple to disassemble and clean; all for under ten bucks! Once all your veggies are chopped, add the oil to coat the bottom of your stock pot and add all the veggies, season with salt and pepper and continue stirring frequently for 5-10 minutes but do no let them brown. When the onions are translucent and the rest of the veggies are soft, turn heat up to medium high and add a cup of good, dry red wine. Today I used up the rest of a nice Oregon Pinot Noir we failed to finish a couple of days ago. Allow all the veggies and wine to simmer for another 3-5 minutes and reduce heat to medium low.
Open the Whole Tomatoes while the veggies are cooking and pour in a large mixing bowl. "Squish" them into smaller chunks by digging your hands into the bowl. Once the alcohol has cooked off from the wine, add all the tomatoes from your mixing bowl as well as the Puree. Next add the basil, bay leaves and crushed red pepper. Today I used about a tablespoon of the of my favorite XX Hot New Mexico crushed red pepper and seasoned with more sea salt and fresh ground pepper as well.
Continue cooking sauce over medium high until it comes to a slow boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 90 minutes recognizing that longer will always be better. Make sure someone is around to stir every 20 minutes or so. Today, Tara my 13 year old daughter stepped in and stirred for me while I ran around buying ingredients for the lasagna and the sauce cooked for just over two hours and it was nearly perfect.
Once the sauce is done cooking I highly recommend blending it with a hand blender right in your stockpot. If you don't own one of these you should go out and buy one soon. I have the Breville, cordless rechargeable type but have owned others that have a cord and they work well also.
Once the sauce is completed, allow to cool for 20 minutes or so, remove the bay leaves and blend to an even, smooth consistency. This is particularly important for lasagna but works well when serving this sauce over your favorite pasta.
This sauce is amazingly good over pasta but today will become one of the key ingredients in my lasagna.
Buon Apetito!
Sausage Lasagna
Serves 8-10
Truthfully, several of our guests thought this was the best lasagna they have ever had and I agree it's one of the best recipes Cherie and I have concocted over the years. It's very easy to double this recipe for a bigger crowd. I highly recommend the Johsonville sausage because it comes in flat, one pound packs and eliminates the need to remove sausage from the casing. I also use this when making a meat sauce on occasion as well.
Ingredients
Olive Oil
1 Pound Spicy Johsnonville Italian Sausage
1 Pound Mild Johnsonville Italian Sausage
2 Large Red Bell Peppers
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
30 Ounces Ricotta Cheese
2 Large Eggs
One Box Trader Joe's No Boil Lasagna Noodles(The Best!)
12 Ounces Grated Mozzarella
One Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan
Garlic Salt, Pepper
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, beat eggs.
In a larger mixing bowl, mix ricotta and add 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese add the beaten eggs and season liberally with salt and pepper.
Seed and roughly chop bell peppers.
Bring a large saute pan up to medium high heat, lightly coat the pan with olive oil and add bell pepper. Season lightly with garlic salt and pepper. Saute for 3-5 minutes stirring almost constantly. Break the sausage apart in your hands and add to pan. Stir frequently with a spatula and cook until sausage is lightly browned. Turn heat to medium high, add the red wine and cook for several more minutes until the alcohol cooks off and wine reduces a bit. Turn off heat and set aside.
Cover the bottom of a large baking dish with marinara sauce and add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Cover noodles with Ricotta cheese mixture and here is where the art comes in. I like to spread the ricotta with the back of a large silicon cake spatula. Next, cover the ricotta with a layer of the sausage and peppers followed by a layer of the grated mozzarella and finally cover it all with a few ladlefuls of your marinara. After this it's a little like shampooing...rinse and repeat. Make as many layers as your baking dish will accommodate. I usually top it all off with a final layer of the lasagna noodles, a thin layer of sauce and lots of mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheese.
Cover loosely with tin foil and make sure your foil does not touch the cheese on top or it will stick. Bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for 10-15 minutes longer until the top of your lasagna turns a luscious looking golden brown. After the top is a the color you desire and the lasagna is done, let stand for about 5 minutes prior to serving making it much easier to cut in uniform portions.
Slice and serve. I recommend serving a gravy boat of your marinara sauce on the side to pour over the top of the lasagna if desired.
One of the best aspects of this dish is that it can be made ahead and held in the frig for baking and it also feeds a big crowd.
Lasagna is great left over, reheats well in the oven and it ain't too shabby right out of the frig around midnight.
Buon Apetito!!
As is the custom in our family, birthday celebrations go on for days. Cherie's birthday was a couple of days ago and tonight we are having the families over for Cherie's favorite lasagna. I know you can buy very good marinara for making lasagna at places like Trader Joe's and AJ's but I just can't fight the urge to make it from scratch. We are serving at least 14 people tonight so I doubled this and it worked out well. My marinara is a merge from my Mom's recipe and some of the recipes I have seen prepared on the Food Network, especially Giada and Maria Batali.
Murph's Marinara
Ingredients
Olive Oil
2 Cans Whole San Marzano Tomatoes
1 Large Can San Marzano Pureed Tomatoes
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
2 Medium Onions
6 Cloves Garlic
2 Medium Carrots
2 Stalks Celery
2 Bay Leaves
2 tsp Dried Basil
Salt, Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
Begin heating your favorite sauce pot prior to covering the bottom with olive oil. I like to bring the pot up to about a medium heat very slowly and I don't add the olive oil until just prior to adding my chopped vegetables.
Finely chop onions, carrots, celery and garlic and set aside on a large cutting board or in prep bowls. I recently bought a mini Proctor Silex food processor and use it constantly. It was under $10 is about 6 inches tall and works fantastically well on carrots in this recipe. If you don't have one you're really missing out. Super easy to store in a nearby cabinet, easy to operate and simple to disassemble and clean; all for under ten bucks! Once all your veggies are chopped, add the oil to coat the bottom of your stock pot and add all the veggies, season with salt and pepper and continue stirring frequently for 5-10 minutes but do no let them brown. When the onions are translucent and the rest of the veggies are soft, turn heat up to medium high and add a cup of good, dry red wine. Today I used up the rest of a nice Oregon Pinot Noir we failed to finish a couple of days ago. Allow all the veggies and wine to simmer for another 3-5 minutes and reduce heat to medium low.
Open the Whole Tomatoes while the veggies are cooking and pour in a large mixing bowl. "Squish" them into smaller chunks by digging your hands into the bowl. Once the alcohol has cooked off from the wine, add all the tomatoes from your mixing bowl as well as the Puree. Next add the basil, bay leaves and crushed red pepper. Today I used about a tablespoon of the of my favorite XX Hot New Mexico crushed red pepper and seasoned with more sea salt and fresh ground pepper as well.
Continue cooking sauce over medium high until it comes to a slow boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 90 minutes recognizing that longer will always be better. Make sure someone is around to stir every 20 minutes or so. Today, Tara my 13 year old daughter stepped in and stirred for me while I ran around buying ingredients for the lasagna and the sauce cooked for just over two hours and it was nearly perfect.
Once the sauce is done cooking I highly recommend blending it with a hand blender right in your stockpot. If you don't own one of these you should go out and buy one soon. I have the Breville, cordless rechargeable type but have owned others that have a cord and they work well also.
This sauce is amazingly good over pasta but today will become one of the key ingredients in my lasagna.
Buon Apetito!
Sausage Lasagna
Serves 8-10
Truthfully, several of our guests thought this was the best lasagna they have ever had and I agree it's one of the best recipes Cherie and I have concocted over the years. It's very easy to double this recipe for a bigger crowd. I highly recommend the Johsonville sausage because it comes in flat, one pound packs and eliminates the need to remove sausage from the casing. I also use this when making a meat sauce on occasion as well.
Ingredients
Olive Oil
1 Pound Spicy Johsnonville Italian Sausage
1 Pound Mild Johnsonville Italian Sausage
2 Large Red Bell Peppers
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
30 Ounces Ricotta Cheese
2 Large Eggs
One Box Trader Joe's No Boil Lasagna Noodles(The Best!)
12 Ounces Grated Mozzarella
One Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan
Garlic Salt, Pepper
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, beat eggs.
In a larger mixing bowl, mix ricotta and add 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese add the beaten eggs and season liberally with salt and pepper.
Seed and roughly chop bell peppers.
Bring a large saute pan up to medium high heat, lightly coat the pan with olive oil and add bell pepper. Season lightly with garlic salt and pepper. Saute for 3-5 minutes stirring almost constantly. Break the sausage apart in your hands and add to pan. Stir frequently with a spatula and cook until sausage is lightly browned. Turn heat to medium high, add the red wine and cook for several more minutes until the alcohol cooks off and wine reduces a bit. Turn off heat and set aside.
Cover the bottom of a large baking dish with marinara sauce and add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Cover noodles with Ricotta cheese mixture and here is where the art comes in. I like to spread the ricotta with the back of a large silicon cake spatula. Next, cover the ricotta with a layer of the sausage and peppers followed by a layer of the grated mozzarella and finally cover it all with a few ladlefuls of your marinara. After this it's a little like shampooing...rinse and repeat. Make as many layers as your baking dish will accommodate. I usually top it all off with a final layer of the lasagna noodles, a thin layer of sauce and lots of mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheese.
Cover loosely with tin foil and make sure your foil does not touch the cheese on top or it will stick. Bake for 30 minutes, remove foil and bake for 10-15 minutes longer until the top of your lasagna turns a luscious looking golden brown. After the top is a the color you desire and the lasagna is done, let stand for about 5 minutes prior to serving making it much easier to cut in uniform portions.
Slice and serve. I recommend serving a gravy boat of your marinara sauce on the side to pour over the top of the lasagna if desired.
One of the best aspects of this dish is that it can be made ahead and held in the frig for baking and it also feeds a big crowd.
Lasagna is great left over, reheats well in the oven and it ain't too shabby right out of the frig around midnight.
 |
| The Birthday Girl!! |
Buon Apetito!!
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