Recipe Sundays: Lasagna

Cold dreary days always seems to call for big and hearty comfort foods. In the dead of winter when everyone is snuggled inside on days off, slow cooked meals are easily some of my favourites to make. Although, today has been bright and spring like, this past week here in Vancouver it has been rainy and damp here. Earlier this week I came home in an absolute torrential downpour. Even though I had a ride, the walk to the house from the complex parking lot was enough to make me feel that damp cold in my bones. As soon as I got a hot shower in me, I got set to work on one of my favourite comfort foods of all times, lasagna. 

Now the thing I love about making lasagna is that when I make it, there's always leftovers. I build it 4 layers high and I can always cut and freeze. It always turns out exactly the way I want it to. The thing that sometimes turns me off from making it though is that it is pretty time consuming. I do take a few short cuts to save time like buying pre made tomato sauce and then spicing it to my own liking and buying oven ready noodles to save time on the cooking process.

Lasagna

Sauce: 

1lb ground beef

1 medium onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced 

1 tbsp italian seasoning

1 can of premade pasta sauce 

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, brown off ground beef with onion and garlic. Once browned, add italian season and cook for another 3 minutes to toast the seasoning to bring out more flavour. Add sauce, mix well and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

Cottage Cheese Filling

1 500g container of cottage cheese

2 eggs

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper.

Beat eggs in a small mixing bowl. Add everything else and mix well. Set aside.

Assembly

1 pkg of oven ready lasagna noodles

Pasta Sauce

Cottage Cheese Filling

2 cups shredded cheese

In a rectangular baking dish spread a thin layer of sauce. This prevents the noodles from sticking and burning to the botton of your pan.

Place your first layer of noodles down.

Top the layer with 1/3 of the remainder of the sauce and 1/3 cup of cheese.

Place second layer of noodles.

Place the whole amount of cottage cheese filling spreading it evenly. Add 1/3 cup of cheese.

Place third layer of noodles.

Add 1/3 of the sauce and 1/3 cup of cheese.

Place 4th layer of noodles.

Top with remainder of sauce and 1 cup of cheese making sure to spread evenly.

Cover loosely with tin foil trying not to touch the cheese and bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

Remove tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

At the grocery store near my house they sell these garlic toasts that I just pop in the oven for about 5 minutes while the cheese is browning to add the extra touch.

What is your favourite comfort food?