Lasagne in the round
I'm still at my mother in law's. She's a bit gimpy from back pain and I'm a little worried about leaving her on Sunday. But I want to so desperately to be at my house, with my sweetie and my cats it's (very nearly) overriding any guilt I may have at leaving.
I made tafelspitz's pasta in chicken broth on Thursday (1 small box Swanson's Natural Goodness low-salt chicken broth, 2 servings of spaghetti broken into small pieces, and about 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Bring the broth to a simmer and add pieces of spaghetti. Wait, stirring occasionally until broth is almost gone. Put on plates and cover with grated parmesan. That's it. Really.) and she really really liked it. I've left instructions, and I hope she'll make it again, but I'm not holding my breath.
I made a lasagne in a big pie pan, as she has no 9x11 pyrexes. It looks wrong, but tasted ok.
Sauce: 1 bottle Classico roasted garlic sauce, 1 cup Big House Red wine, 1 tiny can tomato paste, 1 15 oz can petit chopped tomatoes, a palm full of dried basil, a 1/2 palm full of "greek" oregano, 1 big pinch dried rosemary, 1 bigger pinch dried thyme, and apx 3 Tbl red wine vinegar.
Sauce on the bottom of the pan, layer of no-boil barilla noodles that had been soaked in hot water, layer of ricotta with 1/2 onion and 6 cloves thin-sliced garlic sautéed in bacon grease, gentle sprinkling of grated mozzarella, sauce. Another layer of noodles, browned mild Italian sausage, generous sprinkling of grated mozzarella, about 2 Tbl pesto and about 1 Tbl of dried basil. Another layer of noodles, 1 cup of shopped fresh parsley, a generous sprinkling of grated mozzarella, a generous sprinkling of grated parmesan, and then about 1 up (total) of chopped green olives stuffed with garlic, black olives, sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, and marinated mushrooms. Coved in plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight and then baked at 375 for an hour.
She liked it, but it really needed more pesto and less dried basil. It was ok for an unadventurous lasagne. It still looks weird to me, as I'm so used to the natural form of lasagne being a 9x11 pan, but hopefully I'll get over it. I'm going to pack up the leftovers for the freezer so she has some ready meals for next week.
::channeling Scarlett:: As G-d as my witness, I will never make lasagne without a dishwasher again!!!