I need your best lasagne (lasagna?) recipes - lost

mine and NEED to impress a visitor coming in a few weeks who takes pride in her too tame and too liquid (IMHO) presentation.

Don't need the no cook noodles version - but will accept good one to further impress.

I dearly desire to serve watch them gobble it up with no leftovers, with no comment from me.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=33720

Some advice about the recipe ........ make more pasta than it calls for. Maybe double it. Make the pasta thicker, too. The only down side of the recipe as posted is that the pasta was barely able to structurally contain the lasagne and it got lost to all the rich tasting vegetables.

But it was killer good! :)

You can find it here: http://www.saveur.com/food/classic-recipes/baked-spinach-lasagne-21288583.html

Do you want a meat version or vegetable version?
What do you recall of your own recipe to be the "star" ingredient?
Do you already make your own tomato sauce?

Thanks all - had to go to bed before I could check the results of my query

Below is my basic sauce recipe, if you want to use it. If not, you can use your own but here's what I used to do when we ate a lot of meat. I think my meat lasagna was what clinched a marriage proposal from my husband. LOL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=236&topic_id=41634&mesg_id=41647

At least one day ahead:
Get some really good Italian sausage, with all the good seasoning, especially fennel. Get it bulk if you can, if not squeeze it out of the casings. Maybe 3/4 lb. sweet and 3/4 lb. hot, or all sweet if you don't want it too spicy (if you use hot, you can skip the red pepper flake in the sauce recipe.)

Lightly saute the crumbled sausage with just a little olive oil, breaking it up as small as possible, until it's only about 3/4 of the way done. Put in your crockpot, with all drippings, and your sauce ingredients. Get a big stick of good pepperoni, not the pre-sliced stuff. Peel the paper off and slice it, not too thin or thick, and add to the sauce. Let it simmer about 4 hours so it will really flavor the sauce. Make meatballs and drop them into the sauce raw and let them cook the last 1/2 hour. Allow to cool and refrigerate over night.

When you assemble the lasagna, boil your pasta until only about half way done. Dump in a colander and run under cold water so they will cool off and be easy to handle and not rip so easily. Mix a pound of full fat ricotta, with 1/2 c. of the shredded Italian cheese of your choice, about a 1/4 c. or so of grated Parmesan (might even throw in a little Gorgonzola or feta to give it a little extra zip), 1 lg. egg, salt, pepper, garlic to taste.

Pull the meatballs out cold, slice them and set aside. Heat the sauce just a little to take the chill off and with a slotted spoon pull out all the sausage you can and set aside, same with the pepperoni. Put a little sauce in the bottom of the lasagna pan (9x13 glass cake pan,) just to cover the bottom. Lay in one layer of the pasta and cover with the sliced meatballs, ladle on more sauce and either some shredded or grated cheese. Follow with a second layer of pasta and spread with the ricotta mixture and top with another layer of pasta, no sauce. Top it with the slices of pepperoni, sauce and more cheese. Add another layer of pasta and top it with the crumbled sausage in a nice thick layer. Top with a final layer of pasta, more sauce and a ton of shredded cheese.

I usually limit the amount of sauce I add to the layers to just cover a little for added moisture and then tend to add more to that last layer of pasta just before all the cheese so that it goes down around the sides a little. Bake at 375 until bubbly and the cheese on top is nicely brown.

This thing will weigh a ton and is a meat lover's wet dream! LOL I can't believe we used to eat that much meat! These days I do layers of zucchini, eggplant, and summer squash, portabellas. Which if you want, you can use in place of some of the meat.

Please bear in mind that all measurements are approximated since I don't measure anything so keep tasting at different stages and don't skimp on the seasonings.

Hope you have a great dinner regardless of which recipe you choose to use! :hi:

Will try to find good sausage here in Northern Michigan. Once again thanks for posting and have printed your contribution.

here in OK for awhile. Worse comes to worse, and you can't find a good source, or aren't sure and don't want to risk it, I've found that the Johnsonville brand in the grocery works pretty good in a pinch.

Good luck! :hi:

Johnsonville is available here - if I crumble the sausage patties or brats.

Will do - thanks to you.

by the sausage patties or brats but Johnsonville does make Italian sausage links, both sweet and hot varieties.

You need a spicy pork sausage. You can get away with Portuguese Linguica but not bratwurst.

the meat you are cooking for the sauce. The fennel is what gives Italian sausage its distinct flavor, so you could have the meat dept grind up a nice lean pork chop and some nice lean beef for the meat and use the toasted fennel to get that little kick.

This trick came from a Weight Watchers lasagne recipe that my family LOVES and gives major bang for the buck with no calories added. The recipe only uses 1/2 pound of lean beef, but features red bell pepper, lots of sliced zucchini to add the bulk. Not much cheese. Still bodaciously delicious./

but bratwurst? Blech!

or veal or combination thereof..and yes, ground turkey would be good too.