Tuesday, May 15, 2007

No Ricotta, no problem!


i got a HUGE herb garden from my mother in law on Sunday, so i was all inspired to use some of my fresh herbs and decided to make lasagna.

After a quick inventory of my fridge, i realized i didn't have any ricotta or cottage cheese. So i called my mom. the question of the day was: 'if i make a lasagna without goopy cheese will it fall apart?' my mom said it won't work, so just make it all in a pan on the stove. Um, not the answer i wanted to hear so i just kept looking for a ricotta-less lasagna recipe and came up with nothing. Damn.

Dinner time was fast approaching and i decided whatev, i'm just going to do it. and i did, and it came out fabulous! :) i used no boil lasagna noodles and used the baking times from the back of the box as a guideline, outside of that, it was my own recipe.

No Ricotta, No Problem Lasagna
Serves 6 hungry people, or 8 'i could eat' people

1tsp of olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1.3 lbs lean ground beef
1 jar prepared tomato sauce (i used a mushroom, olive tomato sauce)
1/2 package of no boil lasagna noodles
12-14 fresh basil leaves
shredded mozzarella cheese
Parmesan/ Romano cheese
parsley, basil and oregano

Preheat Oven to 375.

In a pot saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil, when translucent add the ground beef. When the ground beef is brown, add a jar of tomato sauce. Simmer for a few minutes.

Now time to start layering. Add some sauce to the bottom of the baking dish. Put a layer of lasagna noodles down, then put the meat sauce, then the cheese (i didn't put amounts of cheese down, cause everyone likes their cheesiness in different degrees). Add another layer as written. Then on top of the cheese add a layer of fresh basil leaves. Continue to layer until you run out of meat sauce. Finishing with more cheese.

Cover with aluminium foil and pop into preheated oven for 55 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Prior to serving, chop up herbs and sprinkle over the lasagna. Enjoy!

5 comments:

Chic Ink Designs said...

*GASP* you used bottled tomato sauce! Shame on you.


LOL

sounds yum (and um, so does the stove top lasagne, that actually sounds like fun.)

*ccc* said...

OMG, that looks so so good!

And I love the calling your mom bit...I do that ALL the time!! "Mom, what side would you serve with this?" "Mom, do you think this will taste good?"

Sad part is, my mom is NOT a cook. The only thing she ever made while I was growing up were cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, a breakfast casserole and reservations.

Mental note: Next time I have a kitchen question, call Melican....

Anonymous said...

that looks soooo yummy!

What's Cookin Chicago said...

I personally dont prefer ricotta in my lasagna so your recipe sounds perfect to me! :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you thank you! Ran into to the same problem of having this grand idea to make lasagna, but to my horror, no ricotta!