Did a little experimentation with some lasagna on Sunday afternoon. Made a nice bolognese and did a couple of different cheese on two sides. My wife spied some goat cheese crumbles in the store this morning, so those had to be an experiment but did ricotta on the other side.
For the bolognese:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 2 C. chicken broth
- 1 C. milk
- cumin
- coriander
- nutmeg
- fenugreek powder
- salt and pepper
Put carrot, celery, onion, and garlic in the food processor and get it down to small bits. Get a Dutch oven screaming hot and rip off about 2 inch chucks of the ground meats into pan to get some color on them on a couple sides. Once the meat is nicely brown remove from pan and set aside. Add vegetable puree to pan and sweat it out for about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and get a nice color on it. Deglaze pan with chicken stock and add in milk. Put meat back in and simmer, uncovered for as long as you can manage, we did about 3 hours. Near the end add the spices to taste.
For the rest of the lasagna:
- 1 lb dried lasagna noodles cooked to about 1/2-3/4 done
- 1 28 oz can tomato puree
- 1 lb ricotta
- Pecorino Romano
- 1 lb goat cheese crumbles
- A lot of basic torn up
- 1 lb shredded mozzarella
We started to build it up with a layer of tomato puree on the bottom of a pan. Next the noodles, then half we did with ricotta and the other half with the goat cheese crumbles. Then the bolognese, then some mozzarella, then some basil, and lastly the tomato puree. Repeat a second time. Then top with another layer of noodles followed by tomato puree, and mozzarella and pecorino and whatever goat cheese crumbles are left to mark that side.
Bake in a 350 degree oven covered for about an hour. Remove cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until nice and golden.
Working Dad Cooks 